TENNIS ROUNDUP : Sampras Holds Off Lendl for ATP Crown

Pete Sampras held off a determined challenge by the revitalized Ivan Lendl to win the $1.4-million ATP Championship Sunday at Mason, Ohio.

With a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 victory, Sampras pocketed $187,500 for his third tournament title this year. Lendl, who lost his second consecutive finals match, got $98,600.

“I was really aggressive in the first set,” Sampras said. “In the second, I think I was staying back a little too much. I just told myself, ‘Get to the net and get my first serve in.’ ”

But the third set didn’t go according to plan, with five service breaks.

“It was kind of a strange third set,” Sampras said. “I was trying to serve too hard and too close to the line.”

Although Sampras did not think he served well, he sometimes reached 120-plus m.p.h. Lendl seldom topped 110 m.p.h.

It was a frustrating loss for Lendl, whose play had improved every day of the tournament.

“I felt I had a chance, and I just wasn’t able to get my game going,” Lendl said. “I just didn’t feel that I played well the entire match.”

Lendl’s road to the final was probably easier. The only highly ranked player he beat was No. 5 Michael Chang in the semifinals, after top-ranked Jim Courier was knocked out of the bracket.

Sampras had to beat sixth-ranked Petr Korda in the quarterfinals and No. 2 Stefan Edberg in the semifinals. But he also nearly lost a third-round match to Mark Woodforde, fighting off match point.

“I’m very fortunate to be here,” Sampras said. “This game definitely takes a little bit of luck, and I got that it this week.”

Trailing 2-1 in the first set, Lendl double-faulted on game point. It was his only double fault of the match, but enough to give Sampras the set.

Leading 4-3 in the second, Lendl broke Sampras then struggled through his serve but held to win the set.

In the third, Sampras broke Lendl at 2-1, the first of five consecutive service breaks. The second time he was broken, Lendl fired a ball into the air; the last time he threw his racket.

Sampras then won four points for the set and match.

“The biggest points were the break points I lost earlier,” Lendl said.

Lendl, 32, was the No. 1-ranked player in the world most of 1985 through 1989 but has been hampered by hand surgery and a back injury for the past 18 months.

Lendl’s last ATP Tour victory was a year ago, and he had reached the finals of a tournament only once this year, losing to Andre Agassi in last month’s Canadian Open.

Lendl has 91 career titles, second only to Jimmy Connors in the modern era. Sampras, currently ranked No. 3 in the world, has 10.

Top-seeded Karel Novacek of Czechoslovakia needed less than an hour to overpower Franco Davin of Argentina, 6-1, 6-1, in the championship match of the $365,000 Czechoslovak Open at Prague.

Novacek, the defending champion ranked 26th in the world, required only 54 minutes to wrap up the victory and $46,000 top prize.

Davin, ranked 69th, earned $27,000.