Samprases Do Cheering at Home

Thursday was a normal workday for Soterios (Sam) Sampras. He left his home in Rancho Palos Verdes and car-pooled to El Segundo, where he is a project manager as a civilian employee of the Air Force.

The day after 19-year-old Pete Sampras scored the biggest victory of his tennis career, a five-set upset of Ivan Lendl to reach the semifinals of the U.S. Open, his father was pleased, but he wasn’t packing to come here.

As usual, Sam Sampras isn’t going to be watching Pete play tennis, Grand Slam semifinal or not.

“I just don’t go to his matches,” Sam Sampras said. “I’ve got more important things to do, like make a living.”

The Sampras family, of Greek descent, is something that collectively comes first, not the individual fame of one of the children, Sampras’ father said.

“It’s really hard on the family when the attention is showered on one or two kids,” Sam Sampras said. “We have four children and it’s not fair to any of the others.”

The elder Sampras, who has worked for the U.S. government for 28 years, moved his family from Potomac, Md., to Rancho Palos Verdes in 1978, when Pete was 7.

Pete has three siblings, brother Gus, 22, and sisters Stella, 21, and Marion, 16.

Stella is a senior at UCLA and last year played as high as No. 2 singles on the women’s tennis team. In 1987, she was the Southern Section singles champion at Palos Verdes High School, and was a Prince All-American 1984-87.

Marion plays tennis for Palos Verdes High. Gus played tennis when he was young, then turned to his studies. He recently graduated from Cal State Long Beach with a degree in finance.

“Right now, I’m looking for a job,” said Gus, who already has a part-time one, helping Pete with his financial planning.

When Pete was 7, two lawyer friends of the family saw him playing tennis and suggested to Sam that Pete had extraordinary ability.

“I was advised to forget about Pete going to college,” Sam Sampras said.

Pete left school even before college, though, turning pro at 16, after completing his junior year at Palos Verdes High.

Sam played prep basketball in Chicago and briefly at the University of Missouri, where he earned a degree in engineering, but neither he nor his wife, Georgia, ever played tennis.

“We’ve just left it up to Pete,” said Sampras, who has learned--along with his wife--how to keep score.

“We read books,” he said.

When Pete plays John McEnroe in the U.S. Open semifinals Saturday, the only member of the Sampras entourage will be his coach, Joe Brandi.

Sam has seen Pete play in only five tournaments, most recently three in Europe last fall, and says Pete is succeeding very well on his own.

“He has his own mind and he can do it,” Sampras said. “He’s basically growing up now.”