Now 31, Sampras has not played since last September’s US Open final at Flushing Meadows, in which he beat old foe Andre Agassi to clinch his 14th Grand Slam title in a match of high emotion and intense focus from both players which spanned four enthralling sets.

An announcement on his retirement could come at any time, as Sampras has no scheduled plans to return to competitive tennis, and he revealed how he had contemplated returning for Wimbledon, which begins on Monday, before realising he had no desire to get back on court.

He told The Sunday Times how he and coach Paul Annacone took to the practice courts in April.

“I knew I had to get my body back in tennis shape if I wanted to play at Wimbledon,” Sampras said.

“I thought that I would get back to practising because of what the tournament meant to me.”

But the American, who was in a slump before miraculously winning his fifth US Open, could not handle the pressures of regimented daily training and his comeback lasted barely two days.

“I just wasn’t where I wanted to be,” said Sampras, humiliated by Georg Bastl in the second round in 2002.

“Last year, losing like that on Court Two wasn’t the way I wanted to go out. I couldn’t think of anything worse, but even that wasn’t enough to make me go back.

“I had to face up to the facts, to the reality of where I was, and that was a huge deal because of what Wimbledon has meant to me.

“It’s no longer a tournament, it has become part of my life and the whole process of not playing there after so long was very hard.”

Whereas 33-year-old Agassi is improving with age, and yet retains the ambition of a rookie, Sampras does not want to do any further damage to his reputation at the tournament he initially despised, before coming to terms with the speedy courts.

The defeat by Swiss Bastl, a journeyman pro, clearly continues to stir up unpleasant memories for a player who admitted at the time his disappointment with the match being put on an outside court.

He could be swayed into coming back in the future, but Sampras will only return if he believes he can cope with the strains of the modern-day game and compete against the big-servers such as Andy Roddick, a player many believe can follow in the footsteps of his fellow American to be Wimbledon champion.

Quite how his state of mind could change is hard to envisage, and Sampras, whenever he comments on his future, sounds increasingly to be on the brink of hanging up his racket for good.

“I’ll always miss Wimbledon,” Sampras added, “this year, in 10 years’ time, whenever, but I’m not going to come back and play just to say goodbye.

“People talk about Michael Jordan and his competitiveness in everything, but I don’t feel like that. I was competitive at tennis and that’s why I didn’t want to contemplate a farewell tour or anything, because the only reason I play the game is to win.

“I’ve raised the bar over the years, and though it has been tough to touch the same heights over the last couple of years, I still expect to reach certain standards.”

Sampras continues to have his detractors but statistics inform that he is the most successful male player in tennis history, even though the French Open title continues to elude him.

He announced in May that he would never again play at Roland Garros on the clay, a surface he has never be able to master, and the probability is that the All-England Club has also seen the last of its greatest champion.