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Sampras Takes It ON THE Shins : Teen-Ager Won U.S. Open and earned $5.5 Million in 1990, but Success Has Come With a Price

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

In the past year, Pete Sampras:

--Won the U.S. Open tennis tournament.

--Made $5.5 million.

--Endorsed watches and sunglasses.

--Developed shin splints.

--Got over them.

--Lost his coach.

--Rehired him.

--Moved up 76 places in the rankings, from 81 to 5.

--Moved to Florida.

Other than that, it all has been pretty routine for the youngest U.S. Open champion in history, a distinction no one lets him forget.

“Sometimes, the Open feels like it was only last week,” Sampras said. “People keep on reminding me, ‘Good job,’ and bothering me about it. Not bothering me, but reminding me. When I see people on the street or going shopping or something, they all refer to the U.S. Open.

“I’m thinking, ‘That was about five months ago’ but to those people, it was the biggest tournament--and it was.”

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Everything has happened fast for the 19-year-old from Rancho Palos Verdes, about as fast as one of his supersonic serves. Right now, the big question--besides the one about Sampras’ shins--is this:

Can he re-Pete?

It won’t be easy, which even Sampras admits, but at the very least, he will be fit. He hopes. After taking the Australian Open off to rest, Sampras thinks he has the painful shin splints under control.

“I’m a little bit concerned, all right, but if I do the right things for my shins and my body and don’t play too much, I should be OK for the whole year,” Sampras said. “Obviously, there are going to be some aches and pains.”

Not to mention some pressure. For the last month, Sampras has been getting ready for it. He has worked out in Bradenton, Fla., where he just bought a condominium. Reunited with Coach Joe Brandi and under the care of trainer Pat Etcheberry of the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy, Sampras is preparing for his first tournament of the year next week. He will defend his title in the Ebel U.S. Pro Indoor at Philadelphia.

Last year, after the U.S. Open, Sampras played a heavy exhibition schedule and began to notice a throbbing pain in his left leg, just above his ankle.

“My shin was hurting me on the bone, and I just expected it to go away, but it didn’t,” Sampras said. “It got worse and worse.”

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However, Sampras felt well enough to play in the Grand Slam Cup, not an official tournament, but a special event, and wound up winning it. The victory was worth $2 million. The cost was intense pain in his leg.

“It was unbearable,” Sampras said. “If I moved my thumb down my shin, I felt little bumps of blood.”

Sampras returned to Rancho Palos Verdes and sought out orthopedist Jacob Ishkanian of the Kaiser Foundation Hospital in the Harbor City Medical Center. Ishkanian, who has treated him since Sampras was a junior player, diagnosed the problem as shin splints.

When the muscles that connect to the shinbone become inflamed because of overuse, the condition is called shin splints.

Ishkanian put Sampras on a program to prevent shin splints--stretching, warming up and the application of ice after any activity. Ishkanian said that with proper care, shin splints generally do not become chronic.

“This is especially true for someone in the younger age group,” the doctor said.

Brandi, Sampras’ coach, blamed the shin splints on hard courts, such as the ones used in the U.S. Open in Flushing Meadow.

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“The cement is really killing the bodies of these kids,” Brandi said. “In the old days, they played three Grand Slams on grass and one on clay. Those courts were a bit more forgiving.”

There was some concern that Sampras’ shoes might have led to the shin splints, but that issue is in dispute. Ivan Blumberg, Sampras’ agent, said that Sampras is wearing a new shoe made by Sergio Tacchini, with whom Sampras has an endorsement contract.

“He’s wearing a modified shoe,” Blumberg said. “It’s got more support in it. But Pete has got difficult feet to fit. It’s just taken a lot of time to make it. It’s hard to say what caused the problem with Pete. I would like to say the shoes were not the cause of the shin splints.”

According to Kalman Eisenberg, a Century City orthopedic surgeon, footwear could not cause shin splints.

“I really don’t think it’s going to make any difference,” Eisenberg said.

In the meantime, Sampras solved one other weighty problem when he rehired Brandi. They were a team last year, but Brandi left Sampras in November.

Sampras said the dispute was about Brandi’s wanting time with his family, but both Brandi and Blumberg said the problem also concerned money. Sampras summoned Blumberg to Bradenton last week for a meeting.

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“Money was one factor and Joe’s family was the other,” Blumberg said. “How heavily one weighed over the other, I couldn’t answer.”

Brandi’s 13-year-old daughter, Kristina, is a highly regarded junior player, and his son, Stephen, 8, is a soccer player. Still, Brandi said he also felt a sense of duty with Sampras.

“I should finish the job I started with Pete,” Brandi said. “Money was not that much a factor, really. Pete is very kind.”

Sampras is also very well off, especially for a teen-ager. He earned an estimated $5.5 million in prize money, endorsements, exhibitions and special events last year and since the U.S. Open has signed watch and sunglasses endorsement deals.

“He is a major property for us,” said Blumberg, whose plans to protect such a valuable property include a reduction of Sampras’ schedule.

For example, instead of playing the early indoor season in Europe, Sampras is staying in the United States with tournaments in Philadelphia, Memphis and Indian Wells, then Key Biscayne and Orlando. There are also five weeks and five days of vacation time built into the early schedule.

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Sampras said it is a simple plan.

“I want to peak at the Grand Slams,” he said. “And playing an exhibition, even for a lot of money, is not going to help me win a Grand Slam. It’s tough when a lot of money is right in front of your face, but you have to look at the long run. The money will take care of itself, eventually.”

And what about that long run?

Legendary star Ellsworth Vines, who won the U.S. Nationals twice in the 1930s, may be the ultimate Sampras backer.

“That Sampras is something special, believe me,” Vines said. “If he stays healthy, the sky is the limit, I think.”

Brandi, who predicted a top-five ranking for Sampras even before his student won the U.S. Open, said Sampras will reach his peak between 22 and 27.

“He should win between four and eight more Grand Slams,” Brandi said. “He has to work hard and enjoy himself and have a good time at the office--the tennis court.”

In the meantime, Sampras will be an object of the curious. He is coming off an injury and, worse, going back into a group of colleagues shooting for him. Blumberg wonders about a sophomore jinx.

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So will there be a re-Pete? Who knows? But if he can’t match last year, Sampras has only himself to blame. He simply left himself too tough an act to follow.

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