Happy Ending for This Sampras Family Outing

First came the backhand service return, a shot of crackling intensity, hit with ferocious exuberance, with a tinge of desperation, with a huge amount of relief.

Pete Sampras had, with this final shot of a long and tense weekend, clinched the 3-2 U.S. victory over the underdog Czech Republic in the quarterfinals of the Davis Cup. Now Sampras had another matter on his mind.

He was physically aching. Early in the match, Sampras had hurt himself, had felt his left quadriceps ping, pull and tug. He had listened to his team captain, John McEnroe, dare him to play hurt, order him to hang in and plead with him to take one for the team. And Sampras did. He played hurt, played hard and enthusiastically, played to the crowd and for his teammates.

And now, when it was over, when Sampras had used the serve McEnroe called the best in tennis history to pound at Slava Dosedel, Sampras headed into the stands at the Great Western Forum. For the first time at a big tennis occasion, Sampras grabbed his father Sam and gave him a hug.

Through all the wonderful moments Sampras has had in tennis, from the very first U.S. Open title when he was an unknown and nerveless teenager, through the history-making performances at Wimbledon when he has played to perfection and dominated the world’s greatest tournament, father and son never have embraced.

When Sampras was young, a kid learning to travel and live on his own, he didn’t want his parents around. Sampras wasn’t like Andre Agassi, who loves his entourage, who wanted his brother and his best friend, who always had a trainer and an agent and a girlfriend in his box. Sampras was alone.

Only his coach, first Tim Gullikson and then, after Gullikson died of a brain tumor, Paul Annacone, would sit in the player’s box. Sometimes there was a girlfriend. But never Sam. Never his mom, Georgia.

Until this weekend.

Sampras is 28 years old now, almost 29. His legacy as a great tennis player is secure, 12 Grand Slam singles titles and his mastery of Wimbledon is sure to keep his name forever in record books. What we’ve usually seen of Sampras in public is a stoic man whose athletic gifts make it sometimes seem that he is not working hard and whose stone face makes it appear that he sometimes doesn’t care. People would ask all the time why Sam and Georgia weren’t around to see Sampras win all his trophies.

“In my early 20s,” Sampras said, “I was so focused on my tennis that I kind of lost sight of the important people in my life and that’s my family. The older you get, you really appreciate your parents and what they did for you.”

Sam and Georgia came to the Forum this weekend. They were in the stands Friday when a strangely uninspired Sampras accepted a stunning straight-set beating from Jiri Novak, a pedestrian Czech player who played well but should not have been able to do enough to defeat Sampras.

That loss had put the U.S. into an immediate hole and was a big reason why, when Sampras, not smiling and with his shoulders hunched close to his face, walked onto the court Sunday, he knew another setback would be a huge disappointment for more reasons than anyone could have expected.

Sampras would have been unhappy, certainly, to have cost the U.S. what seemed a certain team victory. But more deeply and personally, Sampras wanted this moment. He wanted to be able to run into the stands and feel Sam’s arms, to look into Sam’s eyes and see the delight, to know there was pride in Sam’s heart.

Last year Sampras moved back to Los Angeles from Florida. He has said that the big reason was to be close to his family. When he won Wimbledon last summer in a near-perfect performance against Agassi, Sampras said that he wished his parents could have been there. Sam and Georgia always have been happy to give their son his independence. But it can be lonely.

Pete wants Sam to be with him now. Sam had gotten his plane ticket and his medical shots and was ready to go to Zimbabwe in February for the first round of Davis Cup but Pete was injured. This time, less than 10 miles from home, “They had to come,” Sampras said.

When Sampras spoke of his embrace with Sam, his voice thickened with emotion. After the bad loss Friday, Sampras said, “I felt really sad about it all. They came out and I played the way I did.

“My parents really raised me the right way and my dad hadn’t seen me play much and I definitely want to have them be part of my tennis over the next number of years. Up until this point they haven’t really been to Wimbledon, they haven’t been a part of it. Today was a great moment for my dad, to be on the court and to share with the team. It was fun.”

Now, Pete said, he was sure Sam would want a ticket to Spain where the U.S. will play the semifinals in July. Pete will be happy to buy him that ticket. A gift from son to father.

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Diane Pucin can be reached at her e-mail address: diane.pucin@latimes.com.