Sampras hit by the tennis curse

By Clay Allen Sports Central Columnist

Pete Sampras turns 30-years-old this weekend. After a disappointing season, his worst since 1990, Sampras undoubtedly knows what's coming his way. He's already experiencing it. It's the curse of the 30-year-old tennis player.

Tennis may be the most grueling of all sports. During his career, a tennis professional must play year-round with no offseason to recuperate. Matches are played one-on-one without the support of a coach on the court. Match times routinely reach three hours in one hundred degree heat.

All this adds up to a short career for a tennis player. The iron men of baseball often play well into their forties. Basketball players peak in their thirties. A tennis player is lucky to still be around by the time he reaches thirty.

Very lucky, in fact.

Since the inception of a computer ranking system in 1973, no man over 30-years-old has finished the season ranked number one. Not Jimmy Connors, not Ivan Lendl, not John McEnroe. Most players begin a rapid decent in their late twenties. Victims of this physical burnout include a struggling Michael Chang, an already retired Jim Courier, and a floundering (though recently rejuvenated) Goran Ivanisevic.

In the ATP Champions Race this year, Andre Agassi is the only thirty-something in the top twenty. Other tour veterans over thirty include Ronald Agenor, Jeff Tarango, and Cedric Pioline. At this stage in their career, a first-round victory is a big accomplishment. Francisco Clavet is the oldest player to win a tournament this year at thirty-two. He's ranked fifty-ninth. But most of these seniors are journeyman who rarely saw continued success, even in their younger days. They never experienced the rigor of daily tennis. By Tuesday, their tournaments were usually over.

Top players on the other hand, get little respite from the grind of the tour. Their bodies deteriorate as their careers grow longer. Daily play takes its toll.

Even Jimmy Connors' triumphant semifinal berth during the 1991 U.S. Open doesn't accurately attest to Connors' longevity. At 39-years-old, Connors proved that he could still play a tournament well, but not a season's worth of tournaments. He finished the season ranked forty-eighth.

And now, half way into the summer season, tennis fans are beginning to realize that Sampras' slow start this year may actually be his quickening decline. The 30-year-old curse is taking hold. The younger players -- Andy Roddick, Roger Federer, and Alberto Martin -- have more energy, more determination. Pete Sampras can't keep up anymore. At 30, Sampras is a tennis dinosaur.

Which makes Andre Agassi's achievements even more impressive. While the best tennis player in history proves not even he can break the tennis curse, Andre Agassi is playing some of the best tennis of his life. Still, Agassi must keep up this level for four more months if he wants to stay ahead of the young guns of the ATP' Lleyton Hewitt, Juan Carlos Fererro, and Gustavo Kuerten. If he can't, we will know it his not his fault. After all, Agassi is already 31. He has already played a year on borrowed time.

Agassi offers us a little hope, though. His girlfriend, tennis legend Steffi Graf, is pregnant. And Andre is already promising a little tennis rivalry between baby Agassi and baby Sampras. After the curse takes hold of two tennis legends, we can anticipate a new Agassi-Sampras rivalry.

Article courtesy of Sports Central.