TENNIS MEN AT LOS ANGELES : Edberg Volleys for Another Victory

With a flick of his wrist and a short swing of his racket, Stefan Edberg arrived in another semifinal Friday and he got there in the usual way. He took the volley.

The ball takes a wild ride on the Edberg volley--a short trip back across the net to a place on the court where it scoots away at about the same level as your ankles.

When Edberg hits a volley, he seems to be on a level of his own.

“I think he’s the best when he is on,” said Aaron Krickstein, who played well and still lost handily to Edberg, 6-4, 7-5, in the Volvo/Los Angeles tournament at UCLA. “His backhand volley is by far the best.

“He has such good net coverage up there and his reach and anticipation is amazing,” Krickstein said.

Winner of four Grand Slam titles, Edberg is clearly a man of peaks and volleys, but he is also a man of few words when he describes his game.

“Not so bad,” he said.

After blowing a 4-1 lead in the second set, Amos Mansdorf must have realized his chances of upsetting U.S. Open champion Pete Sampras were not so good. Sampras put 12 aces past Mansdorf in a 6-3, 6-4, decision under the lights that left both players in contemplative moods.

“If I could serve like that, I would have a good chance of winning the U.S. Open, too,” Mansdorf said.

Sampras, who meets the surprise of the tournament, Stefano Pescosolido, in the semifinals tonight, was so into his serves that he was sometimes unprepared for the occasions when Mansdorf put a racket on them.

“When some serves come back, I’m a little startled,” Sampras said. “You can’t do that.”

Something else you can’t do very often is to hit a 124-m.p.h. serve as Sampras did in the first set against Mansdorf, which officially went into the books as Sampras’ fastest serve of the year.

His serve truly is coming around fast, Sampras said. “I’m really snapping it well,” he said. “I’m on a pretty good roll, not a great roll, but I’m starting to get some good rhythm and I’m where I want to be right now.”

Brad Gilbert got ready for his semifinal against Edberg by easily defeating Steve Bryan, 6-1, 6-3, then decided that where he wanted to be was not sitting there watching Edberg’s match with Krickstein. Gilbert said he simply doesn’t believe in scouting his next opponent.

“I have two career things,” Gilbert said. “One, it’s a jinx to go out and watch the guy I’m going to play in the next round, so I don’t, and two, I never hit after I play, win or lose.”

Why?

“If I didn’t get enough that day, I’m not going to get any better,” said Gilbert, who actually did change one career habit by taking the day off before he played.

Gilbert took his family to Malibu, checked out the waves, but decided not to get into the water. “I prefer that 87-degree pool water,” he said.

Meanwhile, there was another bit of tourism done this week. Pescosolido, a 20-year-old from Rome, jumped into a car with his coach, Tonio Zugarelli, and did some sightseeing of their favorite place.

“Beverly Hills,” said Pescosolido, who speaks little English.

The only other words he spoke in English during an interview Friday were “Michelle Pfeiffer” and “good tournament.”

In something of an upset, Pescosolido’s tournament is not yet over. The line drive-hitting baseliner reached his first semifinal on the IBM/ATP Tour with a 7-6 (7-5), 6-3 victory over Scott Davis.

Ranked No. 80, Pescosolido moved up 23 places on the computer after beating Michael Chang and reaching the fourth round at last week’s Canadian Open. If he was surprised at that, he was downright stunned by what has happened here.

“I don’t expect to arrive in semifinals in big tournament like this,” Pescosolido said through Zugarelli, who acted as an interpreter. “I expected to play good, but not like this, in any case.”

Edberg could not have served much better than he did against Krickstein. He lost only seven points on his serve, never faced a break point and broke Krickstein in a key game of the second set to lock up his ninth semifinal appearance in 12 tournaments this year.

After he wrapped up the first set in 34 minutes, Edberg couldn’t find an edge on Krickstein until the 11th game of the second set when Krickstein served at 5-5.