LOS ANGELES TENNIS TOURNAMENT : A Very Good Win for Gilbert : Semifinals: He might have understated things after upsetting top-seeded Edberg. Sampras uses big serves to beat the pesky Pescosolido.

The good news for Pete Sampras is that he spread out 10 aces on the court, trumped Stefano Pescosolido, arrived in today’s Volvo/Los Angeles final and doesn’t have to play Stefan Edberg.

The bad news is that he has to play Brad Gilbert. Sampras brought Pescosolido back to earth with a 6-3, 6-1 victory in their semifinal matchup Saturday night, but Gilbert had already decked the second-ranked Edberg and finished assessing what he had done.

“It was a good win,” said Gilbert, who worked 2 hours 36 minutes for a 7-6 (7-2), 6-7 (7-1), 6-4 decision. “But any win is a good win for me.

Sampras might discover, as Edberg did, that Gilbert is no longer playing like the guy who hasn’t won a tournament since last September.

But Edberg had other problems besides Gilbert. He was betrayed first by a knee and then by his feet. As if waking up in the morning with tendinitis wasn’t bad enough, Edberg had more foot faults than a beginner’s class at Arthur Murray’s.

None of this detracted from Gilbert’s thrill of victory. It was his most satisfying since . . . well, when?

“Since yesterday,” he said.

As for Sampras, he is quickly approaching the first anniversary of his last tournament victory, the U.S. Open. To bag a title today and get him ready to defend at the Open certainly wouldn’t hurt his momentum, Sampras said.

“It would be nice to leave L.A. without losing,” he said. “But I’m where I want to be, I think. Sure, I want to play well, just play good tennis, but winning is the most important thing.”

Pescosolido, a 20-year-old Roman, surprised many by reaching his first semifinal and also managed to beat Michael Chang for the second time in two weeks. Along the way, he charmed fans with his straight-up style and the media with his travelogue of Beverly Hills, even if he moved on the court with about the same speed as Italian marble.

“His mind tries to be in this match, but was lazy,” said Pescosolido’s coach, Tonio Zugarelli.

Gilbert’s upset was a victory for Bradball, the grind-it-out, semi-ugly type of tennis in which the balls he hits move about as fast as Pescosolido.

Even after acknowledging that Gilbert is often a difficult customer, Edberg smiled wryly and said: “He doesn’t really blow you off the court or anything like that.”

Of course, this is the essence of Bradball, although Gilbert conceived of a new twist for Edberg. He unveiled a big serve, knocking nine aces past a stiff-legged Edberg, who was far less mobile than usual.

“I was probably a yard slower than normal,” said Edberg, who measured his ineffectiveness in both serve and volley. Edberg found he was lacking the strength to push off correctly on his serve and was unable to put away the volleys that were waiting for him to slug at the net.

Edberg received treatment for his knee from ATP trainer Bill Norris midway through the match.

“I thought about stopping in the second set,” Edberg said.

“It was quite painful. I just hope I didn’t do any damage to it.”

Gilbert acknowledged that Edberg was not moving as well as he has seen him move before, but there could be a reason besides a sore knee why Edberg failed to put away more then the usual number of volleys.

“Let’s say he had an off day,” Gilbert said.

And as for Edberg’s serve, Gilbert had another answer: “If I whack it and take it early, maybe he won’t get so close to the net.”

Many times, Edberg didn’t. Gilbert slapped low returns at about the level of Edberg’s feet and managed to keep Edberg off-balance the entire match.

Edberg got in only 46% of his first serves, committed four foot faults and missed six break points in the first set and would have lost in straight sets if Gilbert hadn’t let him wriggle away while serving for the match at 5-4.

Gilbert held match point at 40-30, but Edberg slugged a second-service return for a winner to deuce. When Gilbert followed with back-to-back errors, Edberg was on his way to a tiebreaker, which he easily dominated.

At that point, Gilbert was thinking back to his 1989 semifinal with Aaron Krickstein on the same court when he squandered 10 match points and lost. Gilbert said he recalled every one of them.

“At 6-2, 5-2, 40-0, you’re not exactly going to forget that,” he said.

Gilbert remembered how to close a match in the third set after Edberg fell to 0-40 while serving to stay in at 4-5.

Edberg managed to save two more match points, but Gilbert cashed in the third. He ran down Edberg’s forehand volley in the corner and stroked a forehand passing shot straight down the line that caught Edberg leaning the wrong way covering cross-court.

“I had no chance,” Edberg said.