It’s Business as Usual When Sampras Beats Agassi in Semifinals

Pete Sampras has beaten archrival Andre Agassi three times this year, but that doesn’t make Agassi a special case. Sampras has beaten everybody he has played in 21 consecutive matches, the most recent of which came Saturday in the semifinals of the ATP Championships at Mason, Ohio.

Sampras got some help from a cooperative net cord in the first set of a 7-6 (9-7), 6-4 win over Agassi to advance to today’s final against defending champion Patrick Rafter of Australia, who was a 6-4, 6-4 winner over Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia in the other semifinal.

Sampras is 8-4 against Rafter, but Rafter has won three in a row over the American.

“I didn’t serve as well as I would like last week, so I did a little bit of serving practice this week,” Rafter said. “I need to do that well if I am going to win.”

The practice paid off. Rafter won all 35 of his service games during the tournament and faced only one break point, against Daniel Vacek in his first match.

Rafter was simply too precise for Kafelnikov with his serves and ground strokes. He broke Kafelnikov’s serve in the 10th game to win the first set, and broke again in the second and eighth games of the second.

Rafter, who has won the last two U.S. Open titles, has taken his game to new heights in the United States in August. He’s 35-5 in August since 1997.

This was the first tournament since Wimbledon in 1993 in which the top four in the ATP Tour rankings reached the semifinals. Sampras is No. 1, Kafelnikov No. 2, Agassi No. 3 and Rafter No. 4.

Sampras leads Agassi, 16-10, in what has become the great American tennis rivalry of the ‘90s.

“We both were playing about as well as we could on our service games,” Sampras said. “The last couple of times we’ve played, it’s come down to a couple of [tie]breakers.”

Sampras and Agassi were at 6-6, often playing from the baseline, and with the tiebreaker at 7-7, Sampras hit a shot that caught the net cord and dropped onto play; Agassi’s return also hit the net cord, but skipped sideways.

Sampras served out the tiebreaker, and Agassi never recovered.

“I got lucky with the net cord, and he got unlucky with the net cord,” Sampras said. “He got a touch frustrated in the second, and I saw that. That’s when it’s time to elevate a little, and I did that.”

Agassi knew that in his series with Sampras, the winner of the first set had gone on to win 18 of their first 25 matches. Noticeably dejected, Agassi squandered his first two service opportunities in the second set.

“It’s difficult when you get down a set and a break against him,” Agassi said. “At a set and two breaks, it’s a mere formality. You just finish the match.”

Auto Racing

Dario Franchitti’s Reynard-Honda course-record lap of 124.394 mph, run Friday, held up on a rainy Saturday to give him the pole for today’s CART Miller Lite 200 race at Lexington, Ohio.

Franchitti will be trying to continue a hot streak that has included victories in two of the last three races and has pushed him into the series points lead.

Bryan Herta will start alongside Franchitti in a Reynard-Ford Cosworth.

Mika Hakkinen’s McLaren-Mercedes turned the 2.468-mile, tight, twisting Hungaroring course in Budapest in 1 minute 18.156 seconds to earn the pole in today’s Hungarian Grand Prix. Hakkinen will start alongside the Ferrari of Eddie Irvine, who has won two Formula One races in a row and leads Hakkinen by eight points in the driver’s championship competition.

The homes of stock car driver Kyle Petty and Sen. Fritz Hollings (D-S.C.) were destroyed in a fire that swept through the upscale beach community of Isle of Palms, S.C.

Petty was at Watkins Glen, N.Y., where he qualified 25th for today’s Winston Cup race.

Saturday’s qualifying was rained out, and Rusty Wallace will start on the pole for the race in a Ford.

Necrology

Everett W. Brown, who played on USC’s first national champion football team in 1928, died Thursday in Van Nuys. He was 92.

Brown, a back, was believed to be one of the oldest surviving former Trojan football players at the time of his death. He was a three-year letterman under coach Howard Jones, playing on the 1929 team that defeated Pittsburgh in the 1930 Rose Bowl before finishing his career in the 1930 season.

A private service will be held Tuesday at 1 p.m. at the Smoke House in Burbank.

Brown, who later worked as an FBI agent and private investigator, is survived by two sons, James and Bill, who are also former USC athletes. James played football and baseball, and Bill played on two NCAA champion baseball teams.

Miscellany

Pavel Loskutov of Estonia held off three-time defending champion Julius Mtibani of Tanzania and won the Helsinki City Marathon in 2 hours 19 minutes 18 seconds.

Tatiana Maslova of Russia defended her women’s title, finishing at 2:47:10, two seconds ahead of compatriot Olga Sokolova.

Former IBF junior lightweight champion Arturo Gatti made a successful debut as a junior welterweight, scoring a first-round knockout of Reyes Munoz at Mashantucket, Conn.

Names in the News

Hal Baird, 49, the winningest baseball coach in Auburn history at 593-308, said he will retire after next season, his 16th at the school.