Sampras Rallies to Defeat Agassi and Reach Final

Top-ranked Pete Sampras wore down Andre Agassi for a 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-3 victory Saturday and advanced to the final of the IBM/ATP Tour World Championship at Frankfurt, Germany.

Sampras, seeking his second title since 1991, overcame his own erratic play and an inspired performance by Agassi, who pressured Sampras into numerous errors.

But Agassi’s game collapsed in frustration after he lost the second set and had a point penalty after several outbursts that could have even earned him a default from umpire Rudi Berger of Germany.

Sampras will face Germany’s Boris Becker, who also fell behind before rallying for a 6-7 (7-5), 6-4, 6-1 victory over Sergi Bruguera of Spain.

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Gabriela Sabatini’s giant step toward winning the Virginia Slims Championships in New York got a little help from Kimiko Date’s leg.

Sabatini, seeking her first tournament title in 2 1/2 years, grabbed a spot in today’s best-of-five-sets final when she defeated Date, 4-6, 6-0, 6-3.

The Argentine right-hander will take on seventh-seeded Lindsay Davenport, 18, of Murrieta for the title and $250,000 in this season-ending event. Davenport advanced by defeating Mary Pierce, 6-3, 6-2.

“I think the mental part has a lot to do with it,” Sabatini said of her winless streak. “In 1990, I was mentally very focused and I played a great tournament, you know, at the (U.S.) Open when I won.”

Date strained the thigh muscle in her right leg, an injury that bothered the Japanese right-hander.

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Steffi Graf, the world’s top-ranked women’s player, might need surgery for a back injury and could sit out the Australian Open in January, her doctor said.

Golf

Robert Gamez shot a two-under-par 70 at Spyglass Hill and extended his lead to four shots over Johnny Miller in the third round of the $200,000 Pebble Beach Invitational. . . . Bob Tway and Doug Tewell, neighbors in Oklahoma, moved into a tie for the lead in the Mexican Open at Mexico City. Howard Twitty, the leader after each of the first two days, fell one shot behind. . . . Tom Watson’s bogey-free 68 enabled him to take a one-shot lead in the $1.5-million Dunlop Phoenix Tournament at Miyazaki, Japan.

Soccer

A 41st-minute goal by midfielder Leonson Lewis gave Trinidad & Tobago a 1-0 victory over the United States in Port of Spain, Trinidad. . . . American midfielder Cobi Jones of Westlake Village scored his first goal in England’s Premier League, helping Coventry defeat Norwich, 1-0.

Jurisprudence

Henry Tillman, the 1984 Olympic heavyweight boxing gold medal winner who twice defeated Mike Tyson as an amateur, was charged with felony theft and fraud for allegedly using a counterfeit credit card at a casino.

He was charged with nine felony counts of grand theft, attempted grand theft, forgery, obtaining telephone service by fraud and making false financial statements. If convicted of all charges, he faces more than eight years in prison.

Miscellany

A strong performance by Huang Huadong on the pommel horse helped China win the men’s title in the World Team Gymnastics Championships at Dortmund, Germany. China and Russia turned the meet into a two-nation duel that wasn’t decided until the final routines. China finished with 283.333 points, with Russia second with 282.158. Ukraine won the bronze. . . . An all-star team headed by Wayne Gretzky will play a game against the Detroit Vipers of the International Hockey League on Dec. 1 before its tour of Europe--barring a settlement of the NHL labor dispute.

Robin Byrd of the United States became the first American since 1989 to win two gold medals and a silver in an international weightlifting event. Competing in the women’s 110-pound category of the World Weightlifting Championships at Istanbul, Turkey, Byrd lifted 176 pounds in the snatch and 209 pounds in the clean and jerk, earning gold for the snatch and total, and silver for the clean and jerk. Karyn Marshall was the last American to win a gold, in 1989. . . . South African Vuyani Bungu retained his International Boxing Federation junior-featherweight title by unanimous decision over Puerto Rican Felix Camacho at Pretoria, South Africa. . . . Tied, 31-31, at halftime, the USC women’s basketball team fell behind in the second half and lost an exhibition to Tungsram of Hungary, 60-53, at the Lyon Center. Forward Tina Thompson, with 23 points, was the only Trojan in double figures.