"I saw Bridgette go pale; she looked shattered" - When Pete Sampras was angry with sports commentator for nasty remark directed at his wife
Pete Sampras, often regarded as one of the calmest players on the tennis court, was pushed to the limits of his anger once, when he got angry at sports commentator Jim Huber for a snide remark directed at his wife.
Sampras' 2002 season was not off to the best of starts as he endured a fourth-round elimination at the Australian Open before exiting the French Open in the first round. The American's record at Wimbledon made him one of the favorites to win. However, he endured a second-round defeat to the unheralded George Bastl.
Sampras wrote in his book, "A Champion's Mind," that when he returned to his home in Los Angeles, his wife Bridgette Wilson and himself were watching television and heard Jim Huber call Wilson "the Yoko Ono of tennis".
This was a reference to Japanese singer Yoko Ono, who was the wife of the Beatles' singer John Lennon, and was often blamed for the band's breakup. Huber's comments implied that Wilson was the reason behind Sampras' struggles in 2002.
"The day we got back to Los Angeles, we flicked on the television and there was this talking head from CNN, Jim Huber. They were doing a piece on Wimbledon, and Huber steps out and calls Bridgette “the Yoko Ono of tennis”, a reference to the Japanese artist who married John Lennon and was widely blamed for the breakup of the Beatles and a decline in the quality of Lennon’s work," Pete Sampras wrote.
Sampras revealed that his wife looked shattered upon hearing the comment and that he felt horrible about the remark made by Huber despite all the support she had given him over the years.
"I glanced at Bridgette and saw her go pale; she looked shattered. I felt horrible, because something new crossed my mind: maybe she did feel responsible for my troubles, no matter how silly it would have been to do so," the former World No. 1 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," he added.
Sampras called Huber a "schmuck" in retort and claimed that he was livid with him for the supposed joke he made towards his wife.
"That schmuck Huber probably just liked that remark. He probably thought it sounded cool, or it might get him a laugh. The guy could have said I should throw my rackets off a cliff after that performance at Wimbledon and jumped after them, and I couldn’t have cared less," Pete Sampras said
"But what he did say got to me. It made me livid. I told myself, 'Someday, I’m going to see that motherf#$@&%r again'", he added.
"The hardship brought Bridgette and me even closer" - Pete Sampras
Pete Sampras further wrote that that tough period in 2002 brought him and his wife Bridgette closer, calling it a "marital trial."
"If I had to find some crazy, even remotely positive thing in all this, it would be that the hardship brought Bridgette and me even closer, in that it was testing both of us in a kind of marital trial by fire," Pete Sampras wrote.
"If we got through it, Bridgette and I would appreciate each other that much more. Over the next days, we talked, we talked a lot, and I was never one to talk much. We acted like a family. We circled the wagons," he added.
Pete Sampras had a good ending to his 2002 season as he won the US Open by beating his rival Andre Agassi in the final. This eventually turned out to be his swansong as he announced his retirement at the end of the year.