TENNIS ROUNDUP : Muller Saves Best for Last to Defeat Faltering Chang

Top-seeded Michael Chang, the last seeded player left in the $234,000 Hong Kong Open, was beaten in the quarterfinals Friday by Gary Muller of South Africa, 5-7, 6-3, 7-6 (7-1).

Chang, ranked 12th in the world, couldn’t handle Muller’s power-based game.

“It’s one of my problems. I seem to play according to how my opponent plays and not work to my own strengths,” Chang said.

Muller, ranked 72nd, saved his best for the tiebreaker when he hit three service winners and the last of his 16 aces.

“I know I had to relax in the tiebreak and because of that I was able to play well,” Muller said.

In other quarterfinals, Felix Barrientos of the Philippines was defeated by Australia’s Wally Masur, 6-0, 6-1, and Alex Antonitsch of Austria defeated Germany’s Alexander Mronz, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Pete Sampras and Derrick Rostagno swept toward a semifinal matchup in a $225,000 tournament at Orlando, Fla.

Sampras, seeded second, beat No. 8 David Pate, 6-3, 6-3, and No. 4 Rostagno dominated No. 6 Jimmy Arias, 6-1, 6-4.

Two other quarterfinals were affected by rain. The match between top-seeded Andre Agassi and Chuck Adams was suspended with Agassi leading, 6-4, 4-4, and the Brad Gilbert-MaliVai Washington was postponed.

Three of the semifinalists in a $500,000 women’s tournament at Hilton Head Island, S.C., are set, but top-seeded Martina Navratilova trailed No. 9 Leila Meskhi of the Soviet Union in the third set when rain suspended play.

Meskhi led, 6-4, 2-6, 5-4.

Second-seeded Gabriela Sabatini of Argentina, No. 3 Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario of Spain and No. 8 Natalia Zvereva of the Soviet Union had already won.

Sabatini easily defeated No. 7 Helena Sukova of Czechoslovakia, 6-0, 6-1. Sanchez Vicario beat unseeded Federica Bonsignori of Italy, 6-3, 6-2, and Zvereva upset No. 4 Jana Novotna of Czechoslovakia, 7-6 (7-3), 6-4.

At Lisbon, third-seeded Andrei Chesnokov of the Soviet Union eliminated Austria’s Horst Skoff, 6-3, 6-1, in a quarterfinal of a $375,000 tournament.