Pete Sampras was not only a great and exceptional tennis player, but also a great athlete and competitor in Sports History.
In this book he gives a very great insight of his life in the top, the struggle that every champion has to carry on. It is great how he handled the losses. A big Champion like him can teach that even for him life was not always ALL about winning, but also dealing with losses.
Another very important concept that Pete Sampras remarks, are his core values, learned from his family. This is a key concept that many people omit and just focus on the results, not the things that took Pete Sampras to be the best Tennis player ever.

It was interesting reading about Pete Sampras' different tennis matches, but I was hoping for more about Pete's family and stuff about his life other than tennis.

I am Pete Sampras` fan and of course I enjoyed this book a lot!
I knew about most of the matches and important events, so it was really interesting to read Pete`s view of things.
And at the end I had a feeling, that the book was too thin:)

Pete Sampras is my all time favorite tennis player and this book was a unique opportunity to gain insight into the personality and make up of one of the greatest champions of all time. It is hard to put the book down, once you start reading it. I would definitely recommend it to tennis players and non-tennis players alike.

The audio book I purchased by Pete Sampras called A Champion's Mind was a great price and in great condition. It has been very enjoyable to listen to. I couldn't get over the reasonable price and how quickly I received it!

What a wonderful book. I could read a section about a match and want to pull out a tape and watch the match over because the book explained what Pete was feeling as he went through the match. Also, it was so interesting to read about how he was feeling during the many emotional times times in his life. The book shows us a Sampras that we rarely saw on the court.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book and recommend it to everyone, not just tennis fans.

Pete Sampras - A Champions Mind was truly an amazing experience. Sampras lets you into his heart & mind and once you start reading his autobiography you just cannot put this book down. He really deserved more
respect than what he had received. I truly recommend this book to everyone, especially up and coming young athletes. Sampras was born with TALENT and was a true Gentleman but hard work is what made him a true Champion.

Pete Sampras' "A Champion's Mind" is indeed a 15th grand slam.

It never ceases to amaze me how generally people that move quiet, are soft spoken and calm are, turn to be the best writers, authors and talkers. Sampras' may have got a bit of help from his editor, but still it is impressive how relaxing and smooth this book can be... pretty much as his tennis was.

It is an interesting read that I recommend not only to tennis fans but also to people that are into knowing what is it that spins around the brain of successful people: from their first steps, through their growth, their falls, their peaks and finally their retirement. Pete basically gets naked on subjetcs as his family, coaches, trainers, friends, competitors, basically everything he never talked about during his days on the tour.

Another fun point worth every penny is Sampras' sarcastic sense of humour. Sometimes I felt I was reading something written by Conan O'Brien or David Letterman. Probably it is because as I said earlier you have this serious, non-emotional guy telling you this unexpected line at a very uptight situation. One example is what Sampras thought when he met Bridgette Wilson (whoever read the book will know what I'm taking about).

Objetive and no auto-flattering behavior, Sampras shows respect for himself, his peers and his predecesors as well as the new school of tennis players. One thing I would really like to ask Pete is why he placed Ivan Lendl as one of the GOAT, instead of perhaps the one player people relate him most -Pancho Gonzales-; the others named I agree. From my read, it seemed like Sampras had a bit more of respect for Lendl because of Ivan being so friendly and helpful to him during his first days on the tours. Who knows. After all, a few chapters into the book you realize that Pete is human, has a heart, has feelings and emotions, and may be a little subjective at times. Yet I wouldn't argue with him as I'm not even a Pro Tennis Player.

A Champion's Mind deserves 5 stars and no less, because it delivers what it says and it delivers what people would always expect from Pete Sampras: nothing else but 100% high quality.

This is a regurgitation of Pete Sampras' career as he saw it. This is not an in depth analysis. For example, no mention of his first two girlfriends that traveled with him extensively. Nor, is it substantially in depth on match play, a point her or there but generally an overview of the match with many matches in important tournaments skipped completely.

But what this book does perfectly is a general perspective of Pete's influences, how he developed and also how hurt he was by some of what the press said. How would you like to turn the TV on and listen to an announcer call your wife the Yoko Ono of tennis?

What comes through loud and clear is this is a class, quiet guy with a passion and ability for tennis. And that was enough for him. Unfortunately, it was not enough for Connors and McEnroe who at different times felt they needed to take shots at him.

Now, I must admit I am a big Pete Sampras fan so maybe the bar is lower for me. But reading the flow of his development and career, his great parental influence, and the setting of his career makes this a worthwhile book if you have any interest in tennis at all. I strongly recommend this book for tennis fans.

This was a great book, I bought it for my husband who is a big Sampras fan, but I read it, and it was great! He did a great joy talking about his life and his family.

This book is everything most sports autobiographies are not. It's well written, interesting, revealing and honest. The title says it all - the reader is taken on a journey into the mind of a champion. It might be debatable whether Sampras was the most talented player of his generation but it is undisputed that he made the most of what he had, and this book shows you how he did it.

Sampras doesn't engage in any false modesty, cheap shots, boring self-promotion or irrelevant ramblings. He takes to the task of writing about his life in tennnis with the focus, skill and execution that befits a man who was the world's #1 ranked tennis player for 6 straight years.

I haven't read a better sports autobiography.

This book was by far the greatest tennis book i have read yet. It sends not only a message to tennis players about the physical aspect of the game, but the tremendous mentality you must posess in order to make it to where Pete did. He did a great job of laying that on the table and i believe this book can help out even our top notch players today by taking a look at the game through Petes great career. He doesnt try to beat around the bush or be modest, he tells it how it is and i think many will benefit from that. This is a great book not for just Sampras fans, but anybody looking to taking their game to the next and most important step; getting the mentality down. It helps you look at things differently on and off the court to better yourself. Would recommend to anyone!

Pete Sampras is the best tennis player in the history of tennis to this day. This book reveals his life in ways he never showed publicly as a player. It is truly a great story. He was a shy boy with a lot of potential that worked incredibly hard to be the best in the world. Managing his professional and personal life was one of the keys for his success. There are a lot of behaviors that can be learned to be disciplined from this book. I recommend it to everyone looking to be succesful in life.

I am a fan of Pete Sampras, so I enjoyed this book and got to see some insight into his life. He gives great details about certain big matches, and his coaches. The only criticism, and this is a very minor criticism, is he did not go into his personal life that much, he pretty much wrote only about his tennis life. One answer to that is tennis was his life. I believe this i one ofthe better bio books on tennis players.

Great story of a great athlete, Pete is a great champion and yet a
normal and humble kind of guy... his words are sincere and the book is a
good read...

I've been an avid Petenik since the kid won the U.S. Open at the tender age of 19. I was living in NYC at the time and got to see him play at Flushing Meadows just once during the first Grand Slam that he won. This book took me back to that time (and earlier), and walked me through the fantastic wins and frustrating losses that I watched on TV. As a result, I am rummaging through my vast piles of video tapes of his matches and converting them to DVDs so I can enjoy them again without worrying that they will fall apart.

This book gives great insight into how to achieve your goals. From a young age Sampras knew what he wanted to achieve and worked hard to accomplish it.
The book is for Sampras and tennis lovers. It focuses on specific matches and the story behind them.
Great summer sports read.

As Jon Wertheim said, "Consider this book Sampras' 15th grand slam." More than a tennis memoir, the always private and unassuming Sampras, of all people, let's you get inside of his head. Especially, as he discusses the latter stages of his career when sportswriters, fellow players and other experts considered his championship days to be over. Pete openly lets readers in on what went through his mind and how he was able to overcome any thoughts that kept him from focusing on one thing throughout his career, winning tennis matches.

I cracked open the book on a transatlantic red-eye flight thinking that I would read a couple of chapters to put me to sleep. Boy, was I wrong! I finally slept but only after finishing the book.
I am a tennis nut but I thought the content would be appreciated even by people that aren't tennis nuts. He covers his career and key matches but there is a lot of coverage given to people, his relationships and what made him a champion. It is difficult to walk the fine line of sounding confident without coming across as arrogant but Pete Sampras does a good job of that throughout the book like he did/does in real life - he talks about the Gift and how he went about harnessing it. He has very candid commentary about a number of other fellow pros like McEnroe, Connors, Lendl, Federer, etc. He talks about his relationships and competition with his generation of American players (Agassi, Courier and Chang) in a lot of detail as well as his relationship with his coaches through the years. All in all, if you are a tennis fan (or follow sports in general), this is a must read!

As a longtime Sampras fan, it was a delight to get my hands on this book. I could not put it down. Pete was -- and still is -- a class act. It was like a trip down memory lane reading about the matches I had watched so closely growing up. It was so nice after all these years to hear his thoughts on the game, his peers,and life in general. My only complaint? After reading this book, I was wishing I could turn on the tv and see him tearing it up on the court. How I miss the days when Sampras ruled tennis. To me, he'll always be the best tennis player of all time.

I have always been a Sampras fan and thought he got a bad rap as being "too dull" when how can excellence be dull? It was so good to be able to read something more personal about him as he lets us into his life, finally. He tells us what he was feeling and what it took to remain number one; things we could not know before, but he always seemed to realize how lucky he was to be able to be playing tennis. He lets us see how much more he is than a tennis player.

This book gives a clear picture of Sampras' personality which is pretty similiar to his game-straight forward, aggressive when necessary, and well rounded. Sampras tells of his parents' sacrifice so that he could become a champion, and his admiration of their values is evident throughout the book. He also tells of small sibling rivalries; helping his sister deal with Robert Landsorph, who seems to lose all of his students from Austin to Davenport to other coaches because of his belligerent demeanor; and the desinegration of his relationship with Pete Fisher after Fisher's arrest for child molestation. Tennis attracts a strange crowd, and the Sampras family may have found the strangest in Fisher who has taken more credit for Sampras' game than Pete gives him here. Who is to say which of the two is correct? In regard to his rivals, Sampras speaks in detail and honestly. His page or so that he gives to Connors is probably longer than any conversation between the two. Sampras also does a good job of showing the Jekyll and Hyde personality of McEnroe. He gives Lendl his due as an underated champion whose accomplishments are perhaps greater than Connors' or McEnroe's, a kind person, and someone who took time to help a future champion, Sampras at the age 17(Yes, the time with Lendl may cause the bias). He also thoroughly analyzes the games, friendships, and rivalies with Agassi, Courier, Chang, and Martin. Finally, he nods to Federer as a worthy player to break his records, classy again. As far as romantic relationships, an important point to make is that unlike McEnroe, Sampras does not tell anything of his first girlfriend Delana Mulcahy who was substantially older than he and left Sampras for someone even younger or of his relationship with Kimberly Williams. For his not telling the dirt, he has certainly more class than McEnroe whose children will someday read what dad said about all the cokeheads he dated and the disturbing marriage to mom, Tatum O'Neal. Sampras does state that tennis took a priority and cost him until he met Bridgette Wilson. On a different note, one complaint-somebody needed to do a better job on the proofing. There are a number of cliches, and there seems to be no understanding about the difference between I and me, an English teacher's complaint. Regardless, Sampras' book reveals a champion and person of great character.

Pete Sampras was not just a great tennis player. He is one of the classiest athletes to ever compete in big-time professional sports. The fact that he was polite, soft spoken, and exceedingly decent probably reduced his overall fame and appeal in this strange upside-down celebrity culture of ours. We should all appreciate athletes like him when they come along.

I highly recommend this book, not just for tennis fans but for everyone. It offers a peek inside an amazing career that was not only high-pressure and often filled with glory but also totally dependant upon hard work.

Sampras may not have been flashy but he was the real deal, a talented player who worked harder than most of us can ever imagine. His reward is a legacy of both class and greatness.


--Guy P. Harrison, columnist and author of 50 Reasons People Give for Believing in a God

Although I just purchased this book, I can tell already I am in for a treat. It takes guts to open up in this way. As a tennis pro myself, I can relate to much of this, but it is the deeper lessons that are within the words that we all can relate to. I intend to write a much more thorough review after reading the whole book, but thus far, it is enjoyable, engaging and highly recommended. One Man's Love Story - A Near-Death Experience