Pete Sampras arrived in London for the BlackRock Masters Tennis today and caught up with old friends, adversaries and members of the media.

The seven-time Wimbledon champion will take on John McEnroe in a mouth-watering debut match at the event on Wednesday, and he can’t wait to get started.

“I still want to win,” said Sampras.

“It’s still competitive. We all have a lot of pride in playing well and winning. It’s not like I need to come here and ‘have’ to win the event like when I was in my mid-20s when it was a question of ‘all or nothing’. But that said, people want to see me play well and all the guys play well so we all do take a lot of pride in doing what we used to do. For me, I still want to win and I still want to play good tennis.”

It completes the circle for Sampras, who has not set foot in England since his last Wimbledon in 2002.

“I said during my career that I would never play senior’s tennis,” he admitted.

“But you should never say never and I didn’t know how retirement was going to be. It’s tricky. Every athlete will tell you that when they stop at a pretty young age, trying to find different ways to keep yourself fulfilled is difficult and some people have to come out of retirement to do that. The schedule provided by playing here keeps me in shape and makes me a better father and husband. When you’re not doing much throughout your day I can lose my patience and start to think ‘what am I doing with my life’. But I’ve got years to figure it out and retirement is still a work in progress for me. There’s no book on it. But I’m still enjoying playing a little tennis.”

He is looking forward to the prospect of taking on McEnroe, Cedric Pioline and Jeremy Bates in Group A this week, and possibly Stefan Edberg or Greg Rusedski in the final, but Sampras has no regrets about calling it a day when he did. After winning the US Open in 2002 he took his time to make his decision, before ultimately declaring his 6-3, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 victory over Andre Agassi in the final as his last match.

“I was done, I really was,” said Sampras.

“Those last couple of years took a lot out of me. Not winning an event and then winning that last US Open, that was the last fuel I had in my tank. I gave it some time, I gave it six to eight months to really make sure I was done. Then, once Wimbledon came and went the year after I won the Open I knew it was time for me to move on. And I wasn’t going to play for the money or the limelight or to wave goodbye. I play to win. Once that day came where I was 100% done and I wasn’t willing to do the work, it was time for me to call it a career. Watching Wimbledon the year after made me realise that I didn’t have it in my heart to be there, and that’s when I knew that it was for real and I was feeling the emotion of not wanting to play anymore. So that was sort of my epiphany. I was waiting for that something to happen and once it didn’t happen it was time for me to move. I will say in the last couple of years I’ve missed it more than I did when I first retired. I definitely miss that Centre Court. But it’s a brutal sport and it took a lot out of me so I needed a few years to decompress and take a deep breath. To get to the point where I’d like to play again and play in a few of these events is pretty fun for me.”

The event is being covered by ITV4 in the UK, and matches are also being streamed live on the ITV website, ITV.com. Click here to access the live stream http://www.itv.com/sport/tennis/default.html.

On Tuesday, Greg Rusedski got off to a winning start with 6-3, 7-6 win over Guy Forget.

ITV4 TRANSMISSION TIMES

Wednesday                          18:00 - 19:00 (19.30 Match on Red button)

Thursday                               18:00 - 22:00

Friday                                     18:00 - 21:30

Saturday                                12.30 - 17.00 (19.30 Match on Red Button)

Sunday                                  13.00 - 17:00

For tickets to the BlackRock Masters Tennis, or for further information, please call the box office on: +44 (0) 208 233 5882, or visit the official website.

Corporate Hospitality packages are also available. For more information, please call: +44 (0) 208 233 5854.

RESULTS - Tuesday 2nd December

Greg Rusedski d. Guy Forget 6-3, 7-6

Stefan Edberg d. Pat Cash 6-4, 6-3

ORDER OF PLAY (subject to change)

Wednesday afternoon

1          Singles RR      Bates v Pioline

2          Singles RR      Edberg v Rusedski

3          Doubles           Bahrami/Wilkinson v Gullikson/McNamara

Wednesday evening

1          Singles RR      McEnroe v Sampras

2          Doubles           Leconte/Woodforde v Jarryd/Murray

3          Doubles           Gullikson/McNamara v Black/Fleming

Thursday afternoon

1          Singles RR      Cash v Forget

2          Doubles           Bahrami/Bates v McNamara/Wilkinson

3          Doubles           Fleming/Woodforde v Jarryd/Leconte

Thursday evening

1          Singles RR      McEnroe v Pioline

2          Doubles           Rusedski/Wilkinson v McNamara/Woodforde

3          Doubles           Black/Leconte v Bahrami/Gullikso

Friday afternoon

1          Singles RR      Edberg v Forget

2          Single              Bates v Sampras

3          Doubles           Bahrami/Pioline v McNamara/Murray

Friday evening

1          Singles RR      Cash v Rusedski

2          Doubles           Jarryd/Wilkinson v Black/Murray

3          Doubles           Gullikson/Leconte v Fleming/Woodforde

Saturday afternoon

1          Singles RR      Pioline v Sampras

2          Doubles          TBC

3          Doubles          TBC

Saturday evening

1          Singles RR      Bates v McEnroe

2          Doubles           TBC

3          Doubles           TBC

Sunday

1          Singles Final                  LIVE   TBC

2          Doubles Final                          LIVE   TBC

3          Doubles                                   LIVE   TBC

About BlackRock

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