'Sampras still has a chance at Wimbledon'

ROME: Hard-to-impress tennis icon John McEnroe is prepared to advise now-retired Pete Sampras to step back into the mix with a one-off return to Wimbledon this summer.   

"To tell you the truth I'm sort of tempted to push him to play it, because it would be interesting," said McEnroe, a three-time champion on the lawns.   

"You forget until you see him because he hurts you with one shot."   

The 48-year-old McEnroe, playing this weekend in Rome at the Black Rock Masters seniors event at the Foro Italico, cites personal experience that the 35-year-old Sampras still has game after losing to him at a seniors event this month in Boston.   

Sampras, who played in a serious tournament for the first time since his 2002 retirement, said he was not interested in changing his post-tennis life.   

"I wouldn't play Wimbledon just to play - I would play to win. There needs to be a reason to come back, and there really isn't a reason," said the 14-time Grand Slam winner who lifted seven of those trophies at the All England club.   

McEnroe, who announced that he will not be playing at any more seniors events on clay due to a gradual decline in his performance on the surface, does not share Sampras' opinion.   

"I would seed him in the Top 5 in Wimbledon without a doubt," said the veteran. "Name five guys who could beat this guy at Wimbledon.   

"I'd be hard pressed to name a couple - two out of three sets. Three out of five is a different animal. He absolutely just cranks the ball still, and just makes you so uncomfortable and uneasy."   

McEnroe said that Sampras, who has been hitting this spring with the likes of reigning four-time Wimbledon champion Roger Federer and Germany's Tommy Haas, could possibly mount a challenge at the All England club.   

"Physically he's fit - he's not super-fit, not best-of-five fit, but he's best-of-three fit."