Facing Sampras: Press Release

[scoop]

Facing Sampras: Symposium of a Champion

In this new book, competitors and rivals of Pete Sampras, one of the greatest champions in the history of sport, discuss in detail their memories and experiences of playing tennis against the seven-time Wimbledon champion, who reigned for six years as the ATP World No. 1 ranked tennis player (1993-1998).

Contact: Mark Scoop Malinowski 201-218-0811
scoop.malinowski@yahoo.com

For Immediate Release
Teaneck, NJ —– Author/Journalist Mark ‘Scoop’ Malinowski is proud to announce the publication of his ninth tennis book, Facing Sampras ($9.99, 161-pages, available at Amazon.com).

“I think Pete transformed – in a subtle, silent way – the attitude of the game and the attitude of
the best players.” – Sammy Giammalva Jr.

“People tried all sorts of things to get him off his edge.” – Leander Paes

“He had a button that he could push.” – Todd Martin

“I always used to watch him break down Agassi which was always interesting.” – Wayne Ferreira

“US Tennis owes a lot to Pete Sampras.” – Kent Kinnear

“It was impossible to play him.” – Emilio Sanchez

About The Author
Mark Scoop Malinowski has written about tennis for ATPWORLDTOUR.COM, TENNIS Magazine, Tennis Week, Tennisweek.com, Ace Magazine of U.K. Australian Tennis Magazine, ATPWorldTour.com, Tennis View, Australian Open Official Program, Tennis-prose.com, CBSsportsline.com, ESPNSportszone.com, New York Tennis, Totally Tennis Magazine, The Daily Record of Morris County, N.J., TheBiofile.com, Florida Tennis, South Asia Life & Times Magazine. His previous tennis books were “Marcelo Rios: The Man We Barely Knew”, “Facing Nadal”, “Facing McEnroe”, “Facing Hewitt” and “Facing Federer: Symposium of a Champion.”
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The book’s cover photo is by Danny Chamblee.

Book Excerpt Facing Sampras: Symposium of a Champion



Pete developed into an unbelievable player.”

Mats Wilander: “The first time I played Pete I actually thought there’s no – absolutely zero chance he will make it.”

Question: Really?

Mats Wilander: “None. Yeah, yeah. None. Because I played him when I was, I believe, defending champion in ’89. And I think I lost in the second round maybe. I remember going to the press conference and everybody asked, So what do you think? He’s our young up and comer. Obviously, I lost in five sets, so I was slightly upset in a way. But I said that there’s no way you can play tennis like that. You can’t hit one in and one out. Even though we already had Boris Becker, Pete took that style of play to the next level. At 30-love on my serve, he would not put the ball in play, intentionally, I believe. And the intention, I realized later, is so that I wouldn’t get any rhythm. So it’s very clever play. It’s just ugly. It’s just ugly. When you’re playing against him it’s just so ugly. He can’t even hit the ball in the court. The idea is to have a conversation. And Pete was the first guy to say, ‘Fuck you Mats. I’m not worried about you. I’m gonna hold serve and I’m gonna try and keep the ball in play when it’s zero-zero or fifteen-all. Once you’re up, you’re not gonna get anything from me. Forget it.'”

“And it worked. Because you feel like you get to 4-all and he hasn’t literally hit a ball in the court. It’s 4-all and I haven’t really played. And I haven’t really played in his service games and I haven’t really played in mine properly. Maybe a point or two. Maybe 75% – [as Miroslav Mecir walks by us, Mats acknowledges the great Czechoslovak player] this guy knows how to play – he beat Pete Sampras – he would hate him too [smiles]. So and then Pete developed into an unbelievable player. In the beginning it was like?…? And then we realized, that’s how he played.”

“So…and again, never practice with Pete Sampras. Don’t practice with him. He doesn’t keep the ball in play. Pete was an extremely smart player. And it’s just bothersome to play against somebody who – we always try to find a bad reason for why I don’t like somebody, when you’re on the court. For him it was: He thinks I’m absolutely nothing. But that’s the way you have to think, in a way. Nice guy though. Nice guy. He’s a great guy.”

Sampras won series 2-1
1995 SWE V USA SF U.S.A. RR Pete Sampras 26 76 63
1990 Sydney Outdoor Australia Outdoor Hard QF Mats Wilander 67 75 60
1989 US Open NY, U.S.A. Outdoor Hard R64 Pete Sampras 57 63 16 61 64

Order book now at www.createspace.com and in a few days at amazon.com

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Reviews:

“It’s pretty addictive reading.” –Steve Tignor Tennis Magazine

“Excellent book. Fun read.” –Justin Gimelstob Former ATP player and Tennis Channel analyst

“Great content. Excellent read. Well done. Awesome topic.” — Harry Cicma NBC New sports anchor

“Facing Federer is a great insight as to how the players view Roger. I read half the book in one night.” –Robbie Koenig, Former ATP player and International TV commentator/analyst

“You do a very good job with these Facing books.” –Fred Stolle, Tennis Hall of Famer

“I loved Facing McEnroe. Love that era of tennis and all the anecdotes. My favourite of your books to date.” Owen Gigg, Discuss.Tennis

“Amazing anecdotes.” – Sonny Dearth, Daily Press, Newport News, VA

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[scoop]

Scoop Malinowski writes:

Thank you very much Thomas, hope you love it.

 

[mrzz]

Congratulations for your new book, Scoop. Pretty respectable list already. Great idea for a series (I guess you hear this a lot). I am sure it will find his space in the sports literature.

 

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Scoop Malinowski writes:

Thank you for the kind words mrzz. Pretty happy how Facing Pete turned out, learned a lot of new things about Pete. It's a lot of fun and hard work to do these books but it's a labor of love. I hope to keep doing more, Facing Safin, Graf, Serena, Andy Murray, Connors, Agassi, Seles, Borg, Lendl, Laver...

 

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Scoop Malinowski writes:

Scoop Malinowski writes: Thanks Andrew. Wondering what your opinion of Pete's backhand was, especially during the later years of his career? Wondering if your opinion of Pete's backhand is as low as Rios's, who called it "sh**"

 

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Scoop Malinowski writes:

And Su-wei Hsieh traveled alone with no coach and made it to 20 in the world in doubles and 80 in singles, then she got a coach. What an amazing talent. Imagine if Djokovic gets to no. 1 again with 9 people in his box, how this will influence the other players.

 

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Scoop Malinowski writes:

Thank you Gans. It is or will be available on amazon today or tomorrow or the next day. And it's available at createspace.com. Gans you are such a wordsmith

 

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Scoop Malinowski writes:

Catherine; Was it Martina Navratilova who had the first big entourage? Pancho Gonzalez was the anti entourager, he was a lone wolf I was told.

 

[Fiero425]

Scoop Malinowski writes:

Catherine; Was it Martina Navratilova who had the first big entourage? Pancho Gonzalez was the anti entourager, he was a lone wolf I was told.

If I remember correctly, people did make a big deal out of "Team Navratilova!" There were her coaches (Richards, Cardin, Wade, & BJK), girlfriend and trainer, and someone to handle her dogs while on the road OTTH! Lendl had his team as well back in the 80's! :whistle:

 

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Scoop Malinowski writes:

Catherine; Those Czechs like Martina and Lendl sure were major innovators to the modern game. Safin also had an entourage of five or four girlfriends

 

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Scoop Malinowski writes:

That is a very funny video, best short film I've seen all year, Academy Award nomination worthy

 

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Scoop Malinowski writes:

I saw Andreescu beat Girogi in DC, very impressive. Interviewed Tauziat when she was with Bianca at Eddie Herr two or three yrs ago. I'd say she is a serious contender for world no. 1 one day.

 

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Scoop Malinowski writes:

Rod Laver said in his book he thought quick serve volley pts that only lasted 1-2-3 shots was boring for fans to watch. One can only imagine Laver falling asleep if he was watching this King vs Martina match, Catherine.

 

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Scoop Malinowski writes:

How about Federer luring Felix to train in Dubai? Hard to say no but also hard to say the experience will be 100% positive as some of the players chosen to hit with Fed in Dubai did not benefit as we might have expected: Ricardis Berankis, Jesse Levine, Cedric Marcel Stebe, etc.

 

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Scoop Malinowski writes:

The players I believe sign a non disclosure agreement not to talk much about it with the media. Berankis said he was not allowed to talk to me about Roger for my Facing Federer book. Levine did talk but he didn't really reveal much. I learned later from another player that Levine was instructed to hit everything, every ball to Fed's backhand. This was at the time Fed's backhand was wilting under Nadal's forehand assaults. Levine a lefty hit everything to Fed forehand but Levine didn't tell me that. Stebe said Fed saw him play Hewitt on TV in Australia the year before and liked what he saw and that's why Fed reached out to him. Stebe struggled after that for years but last year he re-emerged and got his ranking back up close to 100.

 

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Scoop Malinowski writes:

Catherine; I learned something new about Martina this week. My friend and hitting partner played at Rutgers and he said Martina used to live in NJ and trained a lot with the Rutgers mens team in the later 90s when she was still playing pro dubs. He said she only played doubles and very rarely did singles, she was very serious and focused. She had first played with Princeton's team but it didn't work out and so she went to train with the Rutgers guys.

 

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Scoop Malinowski writes:

Hartt; yuo tube is indeed a gold mine of tennis content, did you ever watch the best of Marcelo Rios videos? You should if you haven't. Thank God for You Tube

 

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Scoop Malinowski writes:

Well, Hartt, you won't be waiting long, looks like Felix will be top 50 by the end of the year so he will play in a lot of ATP events in 2018. I fully expect him to match Shapovalov's success of 2017 in 2018, if not do even better.

 

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Scoop Malinowski writes:

Catherine; Marina might have been the most dedicated athlete of all time, with the greatest longevity, with the exception of the amazing Bernard Hopkins who boxed at the elite world class level to age 51. Martina fall short of Hopkins, as she gave up singles I believe in her later 30s.

 

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Scoop Malinowski writes:

Andrew, Felix and who ever Roger asks can always say, Hey Roger, can you come to me this time? Next year we can train in Dubai