Sampras hangs up racket for the year

Pete Sampras will not play tennis again this year, the winner of a record 14 grand slam titles said on Wednesday.

Sampras, who won his fifth U.S. Open singles crown last month, has withdrawn from all the remaining ATP tournaments in which he was entered in 2002.

The move fans rumours that the 31-year-old is ready to hang up his racket for good.

"Since winning the U.S. Open on September 8, I have been taking some time to reevaluate where I want to go from here," Sampras said.

"I'm therefore not sufficiently prepared to compete in the upcoming tournaments in Madrid, Basel and Paris."

Sampras, who has not played since winning the U.S. Open, had been scheduled to play at the Madrid Masters Series from October 14-20, the Swiss Indoors in Basel from October 21-27 and the Paris Masters from October 28-November 3.

Organisers at the Swiss Indoors said earlier on Wednesday that the 31-year-old had pulled out of their event.

Sampras told the championships of his decision to withdraw through a phone call from his management company, the Swiss tournament said.

"The message we got was that he would not be playing here, and probably would not be playing in the European indoor season at all," said Juerg Vogel.

DEFIED ODDS

"We have had a phone call from his agents but nothing on paper yet. We do need confirmation on paper before we can start offering his place in the draw to the next highest-ranked player.

"But we certainly felt that it was our obligation to give full notice to the public that Pete Sampras would not be playing here this year.

"His baby is due at the start of December and the impression we got was that he would not be playing this year...probably not in the Masters Cup season-ender in Shanghai in November."

Last month, having defied the odds, age, fatigue and an army of critics to claim an unprecedented 14th career grand slam title with an emotional victory over Andre Agassi at the U.S. Open final, Sampras hinted that his most unlikely victory could well be the storybook ending to a brilliant career.

"I'm going to have to weigh it up over the next couple months to see where I'm at," Sampras said at the time. "I still want to play, I love to play.

"But to beat a rival like Andre in a major tournament at the U.S. Open...a storybook ending, it might be a nice way to stop.

"I'll see where I'm at in the next couple of months, where my hearts at and my mind.

"I feel like all the hard work has paid off. All the adversity this year, I got through it and that means more to me than anything.

"I really don't know where I'm going to go from here. I'm going to take some time to enjoy this and reflect a bit."

Sampras's management company -- the William Morris Agency -- were not immediately contactable for comment on Wednesday.