TENNIS ROUNDUP : Sampras, Courier Set Up No. 1 Duel

Pete Sampras, a week after displacing Jim Courier atop the rankings, plays Courier today for the title in the Hong Kong Open.

Courier, seeded No. 1 in the event, overpowered third-seeded Michael Chang, 6-2, 6-3, in a semifinal match Saturday.

Second-seeded Sampras struggled to a 2-6, 7-6 (7-1), 7-6 (7-3) victory over fourth-seeded Amos Mansdorf of Israel.

Courier broke Chang in the second and eighth games of the first set.

He then broke Chang in the second game of the second set to win the match in 90 minutes on the hard court at Victoria Park.

Sampras appeared erratic in his match against Mansdorf, although the American said earlier he had recovered from the stomach distress he suffered Thursday.

Sampras said he felt a bit frustrated in the beginning because things were not going his way but, “I got over it.”

Ivan Lendl advanced to the final of the Nice Open by breezing past Fabrice Santoro of France, 6-2, 6-3, at Nice, France, and will play Marc Goellner, an upset winner over top-seeded Stefan Edberg.

Goellner, who had to qualify for the tournament, defeated Edberg, 6-2, 7-5.

Lendl has seen his ranking fall in recent years as he has been troubled for nearly two years by injuries, but he easily handled Santoro, who survived a three-hour quarterfinal match late Friday evening against Franco Davin.

The tournament is being played on clay, Lendl’s favorite surface, and he blasted winners from the baseline and passed Santoro or forced the Frenchman into errors when Santoro approached the net.

Lendl, 33, ranked eighth in the world, has won only one tournament since 1991. He dropped out of the top 10 briefly last year for the first time since 1980.

Goellner, ranked No. 95 by the ATP, surprised Edberg, No. 3 in the world, with big serves. The 6-foot-5 German used a serve-and-volley game to jump to a 4-1 lead in the first set and hold on to win in 31 minutes.

In the second set, Goellner took a 6-5 lead and Edberg was serving to stay in the match. He saved one match point, but a service return winner by Goellner sent the German into his first final on the pro circuit.

Goellner has not advanced beyond the quarterfinals of any event before Nice.

“He played well, but anyone can play well for a week,” Edberg said. “I served badly today. When I needed a serve I couldn’t get it in the court.”

Horacio de la Pena survived five set points in the grueling first-set tiebreaker and outlasted Claudio Mezzadri in the second set to take a 7-6 (14-12), 7-5 semifinal victory at the U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championships at Charlotte, N.C.

A missed overhead by Mezzadri ended the tiebreaker after 1 hour 21 minutes, tying the longest tiebreaker on the tour this year.

The Argentine earned his first ATP Tour final berth since he won at Kitzbuhel, Austria, in 1990. He will face third-seeded Jaime Yzaga of Peru, a 6-2, 2-6, 6-2 semifinal winner over second-seeded Todd Martin, in today’s final.