Some say Pete Sampras‘ trophy karma is as good as anyone’s on the planet. He won 64 singles titles over his 15 years on the tour, and when his coach, Tim Gullikson, died in ’96, Sampras presented his trophy from his first Wimbledon title, from ’93, at the funeral and it was placed in his mentor’s coffin. How poignant can you get? (Wimbledon soon sent Sampras a replacement trophy, saying, “All of us felt it was such a noble gesture that he had made, and he has always conducted himself so well at our Championships.”)
Okay, at a presentation ceremony after he won the tournament in L.A., he dissed the presenting sponsor by saying, “What have you been drinking?” But who could deny that Sampras consistently claimed his victories with class and dignity? How odd then that someone stole his trophies out of a West L.A. public storage unit? (Sampras reportedly has 13 of his 14 Slam trophies, but lost most of the trophies from his tour wins, two Davis Cups, an Olympic ring and six year-end No. 1 honors.) Of course, when it comes to trophies, this isn’t the first odd moment in the history of the game:
•Bjorn Borg was planning to auction many of his Wimbledon trophies until his fierce foe and fine friend John McEnroe intervened and said “no way.”
•The Wimbledon women’s trophy, the Venus Rosewater Dish, has the most curious name of any tennis trophy we know of (but it’s somehow fitting, considering that Venus Williams has won it five times).
•The Wimbledon men’s trophy is topped by a pineapple — the international sign of hospitality.
•Lindsay Davenport‘s mother lost her daughter’s treasured Olympic gold medal. (Fortunately, it turned up later.)
•No other trophy so adeptly conveyed a corporate sponsor than the whale trophy, the symbol of Pacific Life Insurance Co., which the corporation for years presented at Indian Wells.
•This year’s trophy at the BNP Paribas Open was so heavy that winner Jelena Jankovic couldn’t lift it.
•The Davis Cup is a trophy that keeps on expanding, as all the winners’ names are engraved on it each year.
•When a current prominent American tennis broadcaster was a kid, he was so upset that he lost the final of a regional tournament that he took his runner-up trophy and smashed it on the ground.
•After winning a senior tournament in Northern California, John McEnroe looked at his artsy blown-glass trophy and said, “What the heck is this?”
•Kim Clijsters noted, “I like to make friends on tour. Trophies don’t talk to you when you retire. We all want to win, but meeting up with the girls is much more important.”
•Of working with young cancer patients, Andrea Jaeger added, “It’s like I have kids’ names in my heart. That’s life’s trophy.”
•After Venus Williams beat her sister Serena in a junior tournament, she felt so bad that she claimed silver was her favorite color and she gave Serena the winner’s trophy.
•The most curious trophy presentation ceremony in recent memory came at the ’09 Aussie Open, when Roger Federer, after losing the final to Rafel Nadal, sobbed uncontrollably and said, “God, it’s killing me,” in a quavering voice with his idol Rod Laver looking on.
•After becoming the first Argentine male to win the U.S. Open since Guillermo Vilas in ’77, 2009 champion Juan Martin Del Potro said, “My dream is done. It’s over. I will go home with a trophy, and it’s my best sensation ever in my life.”
•French Federation president Gilbert Ysern said he probably wouldn’t have invited Andre Agassi to Roland Garros for the ’09 trophy presentation if he had known about the Las Vegan’s drug use, adding, “If we ask a former champion to do a trophy ceremony, we highly value that image. His image is hurt.”
•Frenchwoman Amelie Mauresmo won a $1.3 million diamond studded racket trophy with 1,702 diamonds for becoming the first player to capture three titles in any five-year span.
•Helen Jacobs once said, “This is so great, to touch the trophy. If I never win another match I don’t care. What I do in my life, wherever I go, I’m going to always be a Wimbledon champion.”
•Martina Navratilova used medals to make her pro-gay point on the U.S. the military, saying, “The army gives medals to people for killing people and would throw me out for loving one.”
•Nicolas Massu, a singles and doubles gold medalist in ’04, left his medals under his pillow in the Olympic Village.
•Rafael Nadal didn’t win the Barclays London, yet still went home with three trophies: one for sportsmanship, one for being No. 1, and one as the runner up.
