Sampras Wins Before Collapse : Davis Cup: Courier loses, and Russia ties U.S. after first day.

Pete Sampras won a dramatic struggle against his own exhaustion in the Davis Cup tennis finals here Friday, then immediately collapsed in pain.

After they had lifted the winner from the floor and carried him to the locker room, it was Jim Courier’s turn to crash. Taking the court against Russia’s Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Courier stayed on his feet but his game quickly fell apart.

At the end of a punishing first day in Moscow’s Olympic Sports Complex, with 14,000 spectators rooting against them and a clay surface unsuitable to their faster-paced game, the Americans were tied, 1-1, in the best-of-five series and looking quite vulnerable.

Not only did Courier, the American team’s best player on clay, lose to Kafelnikov, he lost in three sets, 7-6 (7-1), 7-5, 6-3, and failed to wear out the workhorse Russia is counting on in today’s doubles match.

And Sampras’ victory over a tireless Andrei Chesnokov, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-7 (7-5), 6-4, left the world’s top-ranked player looking shaken, drained and concerned about recovering for Sunday’s singles match against the sixth-ranked Kafelnikov.

Still, his victory on cramping legs was as heroic as they come.

Playing on the slow clay surface that neutralized his powerful serve, Sampras was broken three times in the first set before charging ahead with a more aggressive game. But Chesnokov, looking far better than his No. 91 ranking would suggest, kept the pressure on, running down almost everything Sampras hit and keeping it in play.

Then there was the crowd, which included Russia’s prime minister and Moscow’s mayor. It roared and stomped to inspire Chesnokov. It rattled Sampras, who committed 73 unforced errors to his opponent’s 40. And it bristled with cellular telephones--a favorite toy of Russia’s new rich--that kept ringing despite the announcer’s appeals to shut them off.

Sampras was leading, four games to two, and serving in the fourth set when a phone rang and someone yelled in Russian, “Call for you, Sampras!” He double-faulted that point, was forced later into a tiebreaker and lost it on another double fault.

With the decisive set tied at three games apiece, Sampras’ right hamstring began to cramp. American captain Tom Gullikson told him to go all out and get the match over with.

“I had to,” Sampras said. “The longer it went on, the worse I was going to be.”

Sampras quickly broke his opponent and went ahead, 5-4. Then, serving at match point, he launched a feverish exchange of 26 shots that kept Chesnokov racing from corner to corner along the baseline until the Russian’s lunging backhand went wide.

As Chesnokov slammed down his racket in defeat, Sampras buckled at the knees and fell on his back.

“My whole body just went into a cramp,” he said later, after ice treatment. “I never had that sensation before. . . . I was in no shape to continue. I guess I wouldn’t have continued.

“I’m going to have a day off tomorrow, get the proper fluids and, hopefully, come 1 o’clock on Sunday, I’ll be ready to go.”

Sampras’ fatigue apparently means Gullikson won’t consider him for the doubles but will go instead with Todd Martin and Richey Reneberg, who have never played together, against Kafelnikov and Andrei Olhovskiy.

Kafelnikov looked like the best player on the court Friday. He overpowered the eighth-ranked Courier with rocket serves, equally powerful returns, perfect lobs and superior net play.

In the final game, with the crowd on its feet, the Russian got to match point with an ace and won it with a hard serve that Courier hit into the net.

“I left a lot inside of me today,” said a disappointed Courier, who plays Chesnokov in the final singles match Sunday. “I’m going to have to regroup and come back. Hopefully, I’ll be able to show a little more than I showed today.”