TENNIS ROUNDUP : Forget Knocks Off Becker; Blisters Stop Sabatini

Guy Forget of France, in pursuit of his first U.S. title, advanced to the final of the $1.3-million ATP Championship at Mason, Ohio, on Saturday by upsetting top-seeded Boris Becker, 7-6 (7-1), 4-6, 6-3.

He will face U.S. Open champion Pete Sampras, who beat French Open champion Jim Courier 6-2, 7-5, in the other semifinal.

Forget and Becker have been frequent doubles partners.

“The last couple of matches we played were getting closer. It wasn’t like I was beating him easily,” Becker said. “I guess it was just a question of time when he was going to beat me once--hopefully he’s not going to beat me again.”

Forget, 26, has been a winner this year at Sydney, Australia, and Brussels. Before that, he had won only three tournaments, all in France, including Toulouse in 1986--20 years after his father, Pierre, and 40 years after his grandfather, Paul, also won there.

Meanwhile, Sampras has been playing better.

“My game is pretty good right now. I’m playing with a lot of confidence,” Sampras said. “I think I’m on a roll.”

Top-seeded Gabriela Sabatini developed a blister on the bottom of her left foot and had to withdraw from her semifinal match in the Player’s Challenge tournament against Jennifer Capriati at Toronto.

Sabatini withdrew with a 3-2 lead in the second set after Capriati won the first set, 6-4.

Capriati will meet Katerina Maleeva in today’s final. Maleeva advanced when her sister, Manuela Maleeva-Fragniere, retired with a shoulder injury while trailing, 4-6, 0-1.

Sabatini called a physiotherapist for an injury timeout after Capriati won the first game of the second set. Sabatini had her foot taped and broke Capriati’s serve in the fifth game before pulling out.

The injury ends Sabatini’s chance of becoming the world’s top-ranked player before the U.S. Open starts on Aug. 26. Currently third behind Monica Seles and Steffi Graf, Sabatini could have reached No. 1 by winning this tournament and at Los Angeles next week.

She said she would still play at Los Angeles and at the Open.

Capriati, seeded third, advanced to her second consecutive final, having won the Mazda Classic in San Diego by beating Seles last Sunday. She had been 0-6 against Sabatini until Saturday.

“I guess the injury might take something away from the win,” Capriati said, “because people will now say that I beat her, but she was injured. But I felt I was playing well, and I won the first set, so I was happy with how things were going.”

Sabatini also was forced to withdraw from the Australian Open at the start of last year. On that occasion, she sprained her right ankle in the third round, and had to take six weeks off the tour.

Magnus Gustafsson of Sweden and Karel Novacek of Czechoslovakia moved into the championship of the $350,000 Czechoslovak Open with hard-fought victories at Prague.

Gustafsson, top seeded, took 2 hours 24 minutes to beat sixth-seeded Guillermo Perez-Roldan of Argentina, 7-5, 6-7 (5-7), 6-2. Novacek, seeded second, needed 2:07 to prevail, 6-1, 2-6, 7-5, over Thomas Muster of Austria.