TENNIS ROUNDUP : Agassi Reaches Final With Win Over Arraya

Second-seeded Andre Agassi defeated Pablo Arraya, 6-4, 6-3, Saturday to advance to the final of the $260,000 AT&T; Challenge tennis tournament at Roswell, Ga.

Agassi, who gained his first final of the year, will face top-seeded Pete Sampras, who defeated Todd Witsken, 6-4, 6-2, in the other semifinal.

Arraya, ranked 130th in the world, stayed even until Agassi broke his serve in the eighth game to take a 5-3 lead. Arraya then broke back to get within 5-4, but lost his serve and the first set.

In the second set, Arraya went up, 3-1, before Agassi came back to win the final five games and the match.

“This was more a test of concentration than fun,” Agassi said. “I felt like I did everything well but nothing great.”

Third-seeded Arantxa SanchezVicaro defeated second-seeded Gabriela Sabatini, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, in the semifinals of a WTA tournament at Hamburg, Germany.

Top-seeded Steffi Graf ousted Anke Huber, 6-3, 6-0, in the other semifinal on rain-soaked clay courts.

The 17-year-old Huber took advantage of Graf’s initial lack of concentration and weak serves, playing to Graf’s backhand to win the first three games of the first set in 13 minutes.

But after a short rain delay, Graf returned to the court in a more aggressive mode, while Huber seemed to lose her boldness.

Graf played the full court with a dazzlingly variety of shots, forcing Huber into errors, and running off 12 straight games.

Graf has won the Hamburg title five times in a row.

Sanchez has won only two of her 13 matches against Graf.

Carlos Costa added to his impressive clay-court credentials by beating fellow Spaniard Francisco Clavet, 7-5, 6-4, in the semifinals of the City of Madrid Grand Prix.

Fifth-seeded Sergi Bruguera, another Spanish clay-court specialist, defeated countryman Javier Sanchez, 6-4, 6-2, in the other semifinal.

Costa is 16-1 on clay this year and has won ATP tournaments in Barcelona and Estoril, Portugal.

Known primarily as a doubles player, Costa, 24, had not won an ATP event until this season.