Sampras Struggles to Victory

Pete Sampras advanced to the semifinals of the ATP Tour World Championship on Friday at Hanover, Germany, and could face Andre Agassi in the final of the $3.6-million, season-ending event.

After struggling past Nicolas Lapentti of Ecuador, 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (7-5), Sampras said, “He really made me work hard. I didn’t play great, but I got through.”

Sampras, ranked No. 5 in the world, is coming off a three-month layoff because of hip and back injuries.

Sampras actually needed to win only one set to advance in the round-robin event featuring the top eight players. He said he didn’t know that was all that was required of him in the tournament’s complicated tiebreaking mechanism.

Agassi, who qualified for the semifinals and wrapped up the world’s top ranking Thursday, was idle.

Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia had also already qualified for the semifinals, but he still had to face Germany’s Nicolas Kiefer on Friday. Kiefer, inspired by a boisterous hometown crowd, hit booming winners from all over the court in winning, 6-1, 4-6, 6-2.

Agassi will play Kafelnikov and Sampras will play Kiefer in the semifinals.

*

The ATP announced that a new ranking system for men’s tennis will be in effect next year. Under the old system, players accumulated points from their best 14 events. In 2000, that will jump to 18.

Boxing

Derrell Coley could challenge Felix Trinidad before Trinidad moves up to challenge World Boxing Assn. junior-middleweight champion David Reid.

A Trinidad-Reid fight had been announced for March 4, but Coley, who is the mandatory challenger as the top available contender, does not want to step aside to allow Trinidad to fight Reid.

“One of the promises I made to Derrell is that I’d always protect his mandatory position,” Dan Goossen, president of America Presents, told the Associated Press. America Presents promotes Coley and Reid.

Goossen said Coley had made an oral agreement to step aside for a Trinidad-Reid match, but then changed his mind. Goossen also said he told Reid that his fight might have to be postponed, and Reid said he understood. However, Trinidad, the World Boxing Council and International Boxing Federation welterweight champion, was quoted Wednesday in Puerto Rican newspapers as saying that he was willing to relinquish the WBC 147-pound title if necessary in order to challenge Reid at 154 pounds.

Former heavyweight champion Tommy Morrison is facing weapons and public intoxication charges after running from a car accident four miles west of Huntsville, Ark.

The Thanksgiving Day arrest occurred as the 30-year-old boxer was free on $3,500 bail. He is awaiting trial Dec. 21 on previous drug and weapons charges, and authorities expect his bail to be revoked.

Morrison fled into the woods when the Corvette in which he was riding ran off the road and hit some trees. Investigators said Morrison wasn’t the driver, but he was charged with public intoxication and being a felon in possession of a weapon when he was found about three hours after the accident.

Winter Sports

Irina Slutskaya of Russia matched her nearly flawless performance of a day earlier to easily win the women’s singles competition at the Cup of Russia figure skating event at St. Petersburg. Maria Petrova and Alexei Tikhonov of Russia won the pairs. . . . Austrian skier Alexandra Meissnitzer, the women’s World Cup overall champion last season, had knee surgery and is expected to sit out the rest of the season. . . . Nancy Greene Raine, a two-time World Cup skiing champion and Olympic gold-medal winner in 1968 who recently was named Canada’s athlete of the century, was honored as the 17th winner of the Halva International Skiing Award at Beaver Creek, Colo. . . . Christian Reich and his brakeman Urs Aeberhard of Switzerland won the two-man bobsled World Cup opener at Lillehammer, Norway, in 1:46 for two runs. . . . Gordon Wren, the only American to qualify for four Olympic skiing events and an early official of the Steamboat Ski Area, died of cancer Thursday at his home in Steamboat Springs, Colo. He was 80.

Miscellany

The Houston Aeros defeated the Long Beach Ice Dogs, 3-2, in a shootout in an International Hockey League game at the Long Beach Arena for their sixth consecutive victory. . . . The Philadelphia Phillies reached a contract agreement with free-agent closer Mike Jackson contingent on Jackson passing a physical, the Philadelphia Daily News reported. . . . Iran’s Shahin Nasirinia hoisted 474 pounds in the clean-and-jerk to win the men’s 187-pound division in the World Weightlifting Championships at Piraeus, Greece. . . . Cuba, last year’s World League champion, remained undefeated in the men’s volleyball World Cup, beating China, 25-18, 25-16, 25-17, and the U.S. defeated Japan, 22-25, 25-23, 25-23, 25-23, at Osaka. . . . Ghana defeated the United States, 2-0, in the third-place game of the Under-17 Soccer World Championship at Auckland, New Zealand. . . . Brazilian soccer star Romario, who two weeks ago was fired by Flamengo, signed with the team’s traditional rival, Vasco da Gama, getting a one-year contract worth a reported $3 million. . . . Goalie German Burgos of the Spanish league team Mallorca has been suspended for 11 league games and fined $3,200 for punching an opposing player, the Spanish Soccer Federation said in Madrid.