Amid Struggling Phase in Career, 51-Year-Old American Tennis Legend Pete Sampras Once Lashed Out at Sports Anchor for Belittling His Pregnant Wife

Pete Sampras, the American tennis superstar, is recognized as one of the calmest players to have ever competed in professional tennis. He never showed his fury to the outside world, despite facing ups and downs on the tennis court. However, there was a time when the 14-time Grand Slam winner once pushed the boundaries of his rage after a sportscaster made a crude remark about his wife, Bridgette Wilson.

Being a popular tennis player has several boons, but it may occasionally turn into the biggest challenge that a player or their loved ones have ever faced. And when the tennis veteran was faced with an inappropriate question from the media, he showed a side of himself that had never been seen before.

Pete Sampras once showed his never before seen side

When the tennis phenom was almost about to retire in the early 2000s, there was a point when the American tennis star consistently lost matches on the court. In 2002, he lost in the first round of the Australian Open, the French Open, and even Wimbledon. However, there was something more that shook the tennis player than having a bad season.

In his memoir, “A Champion’s Mind,” he expressed his views about how he felt after going home to Los Angeles after those defeats. It was at that time he heard television commentator Jim Huber referred to Wilson as “the Yoko Ono of tennis.” He pointed out that the former world number one star’s wife was the reason behind his underwhelming tennis season.

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He wrote, ” The poor girl—all she had done, for months on end, was support me— even as she was going through all these changes, and this is what she got for her trouble. Some a-hole on CNN making a nasty remark that, if you think about it, wasn’t even a valid comparison.” 

However, the 14-time Grand Slam champion clearly believes that after this upsetting moment, he and his pregnant wife became closer and more connected than before.

The upsetting incident brought Sampras and his wife close

The 51-year-old tennis legend, after explaining the incident in his book, described the time as a “marital trial” and talked about how that challenging time brought them together. Additionally, he expressed how he felt that the distressing circumstance was testing them both in terms of how they would face it together.

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He emphasized that they began spending more time together as a pair after that episode.Not only that, but Sampras won the US Open to cap off the 2002 season.