McEnroe's Take
	McEnroe Former ATP Tour pro Patrick McEnroe is providing ESPN.com with in-depth analysis during the Australian Open. McEnroe, a tennis analyst for ESPN, is the U.S. Davis Cup team captain.

MELBOURNE, Australia -- Pete Sampras got really ticked off last year when people were writing him off, especially after Wimbledon and people were saying he was retiring. He never said he was going to retire.

After that, he had more umph at the U.S. Open and that gave him a real boost for the Australian Open. He decided he wanted to work harder and had something to prove.

He showed at the U.S. Open that he could still beat the best players in Andre Agassi and Patrick Rafter, but he lacked the energy for the final with Lleyton Hewitt. So for the Australian Open, he wanted to get in great shape so that he wouldn't run out of gas like he did against Hewitt.

The first two rounds have been cool and easy matches, and should help Sampras as he looks ahead to the second week and conserving his energy.

The draw is still pretty tough for him, with Agassi and Andy Roddick out that helps, but it looks like he's going to play Nicolas Escude in the third round and probably Marat Safiin in the round of 16. The thing about Sampras is that he knows if he's playing well he can beat anyone. That's why he's won 13 Grand Slam titles.

He has to keep pushing himself to play aggressively. Today with Juan Ignacio Chela, he got a bit defensive. He's got to keep pushing, the deeper he gets in the tournament the more dangerous he gets as his confidence grows and the fear factor with the other players increases.