Sampras Lets It All Out : Tennis: He beats England’s Andrew Foster and angers some with his actions after match.

Free speech met the world of tennis Monday at Wimbledon, where Pete Sampras did or did not shout something nasty at the end of his fourth-round victory.

Sampras had knocked off home-grown English hero Andrew Foster, 6-1, 6-2, 7-6 (8-6), in front of a partisan crowd that would have made the Boston Tea Party look neutral.

First, Sampras pumped his fist. Then he said something as he bashed a ball into the stands.

According to courtsiders, Sampras said, “Thank you very much; take that, you. . . .”

Not unexpectedly, some in the British press corps took exception.

According to Sampras, “I said, ‘Thank you very much . . . God bless you . . . hasta la vista ‘--then I got the hell off the court.”

Granted, his version doesn’t sound too plausible. But at least give Sampras credit for bringing together rejoinders that don’t normally appear in the same story. One comes from a Salvation Army Santa Claus, the other from “The Terminator.”

Sampras said he didn’t use bad language, didn’t feel any need to apologize and didn’t see why everyone was so interested in what he had said or didn’t say.

“I don’t see what the big deal is,” he said.

“I’m not trying to rub it in anybody’s face. I was keyed up and wanted to win the last point and get it over with, and I showed some emotion.”

Even so, it was not the biggest show of the day. That honor went to Andre Agassi, who stood up to Richard Krajicek’s “Big Ben” serve and kept on ticking into the quarterfinals.

Krajicek hit 23 aces past Agassi but needed more. He watched Agassi snap a return winner for a set point in the second tiebreaker, then went out, 7-5, 7-6 (9-7), 7-6 (10-8).

Agassi, who plays Sampras in the quarterfinals, said the key to the match was correctly guessing which way Krajicek would rocket his first serve.

“When a guy can hit a first serve 125 m.p.h., really, there isn’t much you can do except hope it’s near your racket,” Agassi said.

There is another big-name quarterfinal in the top half of the draw--Boris Becker-Michael Stich, which was good enough to be the final in 1991.

This means that the buildup probably is going to be great, although Stich believes that might not be such a good idea.

“I think if you put too much into that match, it’s going to be probably a very boring match,” said Stich, who beat Becker for the Wimbledon title two years ago.

Becker earned the rematch by out-dueling Henri Leconte, a stylish grass-court player, 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. Stich stuck a 7-6 (7-4), 6-4, 7-6 (7-3) number on Petr Korda, who wouldn’t feel at home here if they gave him the keys to the place.

Creeping through the draw is Jim Courier, hardly another grass-court heavyweight, but in the quarterfinals for the second time.

Courier knocked off Wayne Ferreira, 4-6, 7-6 (10-8), 7-5, 6-4, to set up a quarterfinal against marathon man Todd Martin, who went five sets for the second consecutive match.

Martin went the distance to beat Goran Ivanisevic in the third round and came back to outlast David Wheaton, 6-4, 5-7, 5-7, 7-5, 6-3, when Wheaton served 17 double faults and blew a two-service break lead in the fourth set.

No one had an easier day than Stefan Edberg. He breezed past Richard Matuszewski in straight sets and plays Cedric Pioline in the quarterfinals.

“I’m not playing my best, but I’m still winning my matches pretty comfortably,” Edberg said. “That is always a good sign.”

As for the women, the signs were slightly different, especially for Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, who was shown the way out.

Sanchez Vicario was sick to her stomach, but not because of being upset by Helena Sukova, 6-3, 6-4. Sanchez Vicario, the No. 3-seeded player, said that losing a match is not the worst thing that can happen to her.

“I’m happy I have played in this tournament, and I think it’s not the end of the world,” she said. “I didn’t have my day, but there are many more Wimbledons I can play.”

This year’s Wimbledon continues for Sukova, who meets Conchita Martinez in the quarterfinals.

Anke Huber played despite a fever, and it showed.

“Cough, fever, it’s not very good,” said Huber, who thought about pulling out before her match with Gabriela Sabatini.

Huber won six points in the second set, one point in her three service games, and lost to Sabatini, 7-6 (7-3), 6-0.

Sabatini, who meets Jana Novotna in the quarterfinals, credited her game plan.

“In every match I go to play, you know, I always have a plan before I play,” Sabatini said. “I have to know how I’m going to play, and I think it is very important because strategy is very important.”

No one can argue with that.

Nathalie Tauziat had no answer for Martina Navratilova, who won her fourth match without dropping a set, 6-1, 6-3. Navratilova will play Natalia Zvereva in the quarterfinals.

Steffi Graf hasn’t lost a set either. She met with little resistance in her encounter with Meredith McGrath and swept into the quarterfinals with a 6-1, 6-4 victory.

Next for Graf is 17-year-old Jennifer Capriati, forced to go three sets for the fourth time. On this occasion, it was against Lisa Raymond, a two-time All-American and onetime criminology student at Florida, who lost to Capriati, 4-6, 6-3, 8-6.

Ranked 65th, Raymond was playing her seventh match as a pro after leaving school early.

Tennis Notes

Pete Sampras felt a twinge in his sore shoulder during warm-ups before his fourth-round match. He said it began to bother him again at the start of the third set against Andrew Foster. Sampras was attended to three times on the court by Bill Norris, ATP trainer, then took an anti-inflammatory pill. Sampras expects to be OK for his quarterfinal match Wednesday against Andre Agassi. . . . Jim Courier needed four sets to beat Wayne Ferreira, after blowing a 4-2 lead in the first set. “I just totally froze, stopped moving my feet and I just choked like a dog at 4-4,” Courier said. “That was ugly. . . . It’s pathetic, but, you know, we’re not perfect. That’s more and more evident every day, I guess.”

These are lean times, more or less, for Boris Becker, at least in the Grand Slam events. Since Becker lost to Michael Stich in the 1991 Wimbledon final, his best Grand Slam results have been reaching the quarterfinal of Wimbledon and the fourth round of the U.S. Open last year. Does he wonder what is happening? “Of course I think about why, and I’m trying to change it this week,” Becker said. “I would say it goes in stages. You have a couple of good years in the Grand Slams, and then you have a couple of bad years. Sometimes you don’t have the answer all the time. If you did, you would be Einstein.”

Quarterfinal opponents Jim Courier and Todd Martin are frequent practice partners and friends, but Courier said there is a limit to their association. “We’ll go at each other’s throats on the court,” he said.