The Most Humiliating Loss For Pete Sampras At Wimbledon

By Randy Walker

@TennisPublisher

It was on June 26, 2002 when seven-time Wimbledon champion Pete Sampras suffered his most humiliating defeat ever at the All England Club, and perhaps in his career. It also ended up being his career Swan Song at Wimbledon for Sampras.

It was a second-round loss on Court 2 at the All England Club to George Bastl that is documented in my book “On This Day In Tennis History” (for sale and download here: https://a.co/d/6CZLdcy)

June 26, 2002 – Seven-time Wimbledon champion Pete Sampras plays what ultimately becomes his final Wimbledon match, losing in the second round – unceremoniously on the Graveyard Court – Court No. 2 – to lucky-loser and No. 145-ranked George Bastl of Switzerland 6-3, 6-2, 4-6, 3-6, 6-4. Bastl, who enters the match having won only one main draw grass court match in his career, only gains entry into the tournament when Felix Mantilla of Spain withdraws the day before the tournament begins. Despite the loss, Sampras tells reporters after the match that he would return to the All England Club to play again, but after his U.S. Open triumph later in the summer, he never plays another professional match. “You know, I’m not going to end my time here with that loss,” Sampras says after the match. “I want to end it on a high note, and so I plan on being back… As long as I feel like I can continue to win majors and contend, I’ll just continue to play.” Says Bastl, “It’s a nice story isn’t it? I gave myself chances because I was practicing on grass for the last three weeks. I had won my last three matches and I knew my game was improving match by match. I felt I would have some sort of a chance.”

In 2019, Sampras spoke in depth with tennis historian and author Steve Flink about this humiliating loss, a loss that eventually helped motivate him to have a career microphone drop with his win two months later at the U.S. Open. The following are the highlights from that conversation in an excerpt from Flink’s book on Sampras called “Pete Sampras Greatness Revisited” (for sale and download here: https://a.co/d/gfqeMTm)

In his 14th and final appearance at Roland Garros, he was ushered out of the French Open in the first round by Italy’s Andrea Gaudenzi, a player ranked No. 69 in the world. Shifting from clay to grass, Sampras fell early on the lawns of Halle against Germany’s Nicholas Kiefer. Amidst this disconcerting slump, he headed into Wimbledon hoping to rekindle some magic and find a path toward an eighth title at the All England Club.

That scenario did not pan out. In the second round, Sampras faced “lucky loser” George Bastl of Switzerland out on the old Court 2, better known as the “Graveyard” of champions. In that setting, many renowned champions had suffered stunning losses, including John McEnroe at the hands of Tim Gullikson in 1979 and Jimmy Connors versus Kevin Curren in 1983. It was a distracting and noisy setting for Wimbledon and it seemed like another world compared to the fabled Centre Court or even Court 1.

Sampras would surely have handled Bastl on the Centre Court comfortably enough, but he was out of sorts in an unfamiliar location. Bastl captured the first two sets before Sampras battled his way back into a fifth. But the career journeyman Bastl pulled off a startling 6-3, 6-2, 4-6, 3-6, 6-4 victory over the seven-time Wimbledon champion.

To just about anyone else of stature who had tasted a defeat of that nature, the word humiliation would spring to mind. But Sampras was made of a different stock. He recognized that he was not himself at this juncture of his career. This loss was surely a low point for him. He had been beaten, but the unshakable American was not defeated. That was what made him who he is—the ever present sense of self He was not giving up. To the contrary, he was moving on and driven by powerful private engines to ignore those who thought that he was through, and, even more so, to prove a point to himself.

Was the Bastl defeat a blessing in disguise? He answered in 2019, “The blessing in disguise was getting back together with Paul Annacone. We had this great run, but you get to the point where you want to hear a different voice. But after we split up my whole coaching situation was a mess. I was with Tom Gullikson a little bit and with Jose Higueras. Jose was not in a place to be totally invested in me at the time and it just accumulated over the months. I was working hard but, as you get older, you almost need more of a friend/therapist more than you need help with your forehand.”

Continuing with his musings on his feelings after the shocker at Wimbledon, Sampras asserted, “After that Bastl match I just felt completely empty and dejected. I just felt lost and I didn’t know where to turn. I just played horribly against Bastl on Court 2. When you are not confident out there, anything can happen. Five years before that on Court 2, I would have been fine. But I just felt uncomfortable with my game. I think the last eight months accumulated led to that one match. I just remember sitting on the side of the court, playing with my strings and thinking, ‘What the hell just happened?’ I was still putting in the time and effort but maybe my swagger went away. It really hit me hard and coming home was not easy. I had to do some soul searching. I was talking to my wife, Bridgette, quite a bit. I always felt in a safe place talking to her and she was almost my therapist. Jose and I had a talk and decided it was best to end it.”

That brought Annacone back into the fold. Working for the USTA, he had been at Wimbledon. Sampras may have been muddled in his mind about why he was so far off key on the court, but the clarity of his deep-picture thinking was as sharp as ever. He knew it was time to reunite with Annacone and wasted no time making that decision.