Chang’s at Fault as Courier Wins : Tennis: Sampras also advances to U.S. Open semifinals with victory over Black in straight sets.

Nothing less than a sweating and grinding battle can be expected when Jim Courier and Michael Chang face each other on a tennis court, as each player strictly adheres to the winning-by-attrition school of baseline punchers.

Courier and Chang played their traditional roles during a U.S. Open quarterfinal Thursday night, flinging shots all over the court, walloping forehands and slicing backhands. Neither player seemed able to put any of the three sets out of its misery. Each set lasted more than an hour.

Courier won, 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-3), 7-5, although some might argue that Chang lost, as he served to win each set and double-faulted at crucial moments--including match point.

Courier earned the right to play Pete Sampras in the semifinals Saturday. Sampras earlier dispatched unseeded Byron Black of Zimbabwe, 7-6 (7-3), 6-4, 6-0.

Courier, seeded 14th, exulted in ousting the fifth-seeded Chang, especially in the manner he did it.

“I let him serve for all three sets and managed to break him all three times,” Courier said. “That’s a good sign for me.”

Chang anguished over his opportunities to win each set but understood the pattern of matches with Courier.

“I’ve played Jim enough to expect this,” Chang said. “It turned quite honestly on a few points here and there. At the U.S. Open, you hope these things just don’t happen. It was a little bit difficult to serve out there; it was windy. Both of us served more double faults than usual.”

Chang double-faulted six times and Courier five, but Chang’s double faults came at the more damaging moments.

Chang served for the first set but gave Courier his first break point by double-faulting. Chang had four set points, but Courier dragged the game to deuce five times before he broke.

The tiebreaker seesawed until Chang began to make unforced errors. Courier had one set point at 6-4 but failed to convert. He did that two points later.

Chang lost his serve to open the second set and it looked like a replay of the first. Each game was a tedious exchange of baseline rallies interspersed with the occasional net rushes.

Courier had an easier time in the second-set tiebreaker and erased the loss of his serve in the third set by pulling even at 5-5 when Chang double-faulted on break point. That repeated itself on match point.

Sampras, like Chang, was a jittery server Thursday. He was serving at 5-3 in the first set and double-faulted to lose his serve and lose a chance to close out the set in a less painful fashion than a tiebreaker.

The second-seeded Sampras revived his serve after the first set. He fired his 17th ace to win the second set.

Sampras broke Black’s serve in the first game of the third set and that set the tone for the rest of the set. Black did not hold a service game.

Sampras ended the set and match with a 128-m.p.h. ace.

“After I won the first two, there is no reason to fool around at this point in the tournament and take things for granted,” Sampras said. “Just try to stay on top of him. The last set was the best set I played all week. I really started to pick up my serve. My whole game kind of just came behind it.”

Black, at 5 feet 9, was unable to handle Sampras’ serve, which came in especially hard even on a blustery day. Sampras had 22 aces to Black’s two. Sampras dominated from the backcourt too. He had 59 winners to Black’s 17.

“He must have aced me I don’t know how many times today,” Black said. “Just mentally, he is very stable. Nothing seems to faze him too much. You can break his serve and he still comes back firing. He has got a lot of confidence. He knows he is one of the top players.”