Reader's question:  

But Sampras is retiring in graceful self-control. He plans to announce his retirement in a ceremony at the U.S. Open tonight, and a lot of people wonder why Sampras won't make more of the event, allow himself to be more elaborately feted. The simple answer is that Sampras doesn't need it. He doesn't need a last jolt of adrenaline or dose of adulation. He doesn't need a prolonged ego bath. He doesn't need more money, or trophies. He doesn't need any of the things that other athletes find it so hard to walk away from. He's content.

Could you explain "ego bath"?

My comments:

Ego is the self. Not the real self but the opinion one has of oneself.

In other words one's sense of self importance.

Often inflated, such as a person has when they want to indulge in an ego bath for long.

Bath? Yeah, in the tub where you submerge in water and have your body washed.

In the ego bath, you have your ego washed and massaged, and massaged, and massaged some more.

Kudos to Sampras, by the way, one of the greatest players to have ever taken up a tennis racket. He doesn’t need it.

In other words, he has self-esteem of the right kind, and – if you happen to have watched him play back in the day – has it in abundance.

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Off the shoulders

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Foregone conclusion

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Stare in the face

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Drive home

Out of nowhere

Shove it under the carpet

the sky is the limit

hit it off

get my rib in my heart

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length and breadth of

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Go to Zhang Xin's column

本文仅代表作者本人观点，与本网立场无关。欢迎大家讨论学术问题，尊重他人，禁止人身攻击和发布一切违反国家现行法律法规的内容。

Zhang Xin（张欣） has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.