Show some support!

Sampras' withdrawl may deter potential sponsors

BBC tennis correspondent Iain Carter believes top tennis players should be doing more to support their sport.

Pete Sampras has made the best part of £30m from playing tennis, and that's just prize money - endorsements usually prove even more lucrative.

Only gratitude is in short supply.

Sampras's sport is in a spot of bother and needs all the friends it can get.

You'd think someone who's profited so massively from tennis might just find time to help it out in its hour of need.

No way. Sampras suffered a sore arm in playing three matches in Stuttgart last week and so his racquets were packed away for the rest of the year.

Just when they need their biggest stars to do their bit they disappear

BBC tennis correspondent Iain Carter

Clearly, despite his comments to the contrary in Germany, his appetite for matches is on the wane - sadly this leaves tennis in the lurch.

The ATP is reeling from the collapse of their ten year multi-million dollar rights deal with the defunct sports marketing company ISL.

Three years on from the conclusion of the negotiations that the ATP were convinced had secured its future, it's back in the marketplace seeking sponsors and courting broadcasters.

Just when they need their biggest stars to do their bit they disappear. Sampras isn't alone.

Andre Agassi pulled out of the Basle tournament - citing exhaustion. He's played two matches in six weeks.

What will Davidoff, the principle Basle sponsors, make of that - especially as it was expected Sampras would be taking part as well?

Agassi: exhausted after two matches in six weeks

To boost the sport's profile the Champions Race was introduced two years ago.

Agassi is supposed to be battling it out with Gustavo Kuerten and Lleyton Hewitt to finish the year as world number one.

Sampras should be chasing a place at the season ending Masters Cup in Sydney.

Thanks a bunch guys. Instead we have the likes of Tim Henman and Sebastian Grosjean trying to make the most of a great champion's absence from the fray.

That's not the ideal behind the Champions Race.

Those who don't play all nine of the Masters Series events are hit in the pocket - Sampras admits taking or leaving tournaments as readily as he has done over the years has cost him millions.

He can afford it - right now his sport probably can't.