Sampras Will Test Adventurous Korean

It’s a story as old as America itself.

A dreamer from across the ocean comes to the land of opportunity to seek fame and fortune and pursue his life’s ambition.

For Hyung-Taik Lee, a heretofore unknown South Korean whose improbable odyssey through the U.S. Open continued Saturday with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 third-round victory over Rainer Schuttler of Germany, the journey includes a center-court match against the world’s greatest tennis player.

“It’s a dream come true and an honor,” Lee said through an interpreter of his round-of-16 Labor Day matchup against Pete Sampras, who advanced with a 7-6 (5), 7-6 (3), 6-3 win over Agustin Calleri of Argentina.

Sampras, seeded fourth, and third-seeded Magnus Norman of Sweden, who plays Max Mirnyi of Belarus in a third-round match today, are the only two of the top five seeded players remaining in the men’s draw after Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia upset fifth-seeded Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia, 6-4, 7-6 (5), 6-1.

Jan-Michael Gambill of Colbert, Wash., perhaps the best of the young U.S. players, dispatched 15th-seeded Mark Philippoussis of Australia, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.

Lindsay Davenport, seeded second among the women, moved into the round of 16 with a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand. Fourth-seeded Mary Pierce of France defeated Lisa Raymond, 6-4, 7-6 (6), and fifth-seeded Serena Williams beat Giulia Casoni of Italy, 6-4, 6-2.

Sampras, winner of a record 13 Grand Slam titles and favored to win his fifth U.S. Open championship, had never before seen Calleri play and knew so little about him that he had no reason to doubt the person who told him Friday that the No. 72-ranked Argentine was a left-handed baseliner.

“He’s a righty that hits the ball big,” Sampras said later, laughing. “Bad information.”

Sampras may be lucky to find any information about Lee, a 24-year-old right-hander who is playing in his first Grand Slam event.

Lee, a self-described country boy who began playing tennis in the third grade after catching the eye of his coach, is only the third Korean man to play in a Grand Slam event, and the first to make it out of the first round.

He had failed to qualify for the U.S. Open twice previously and three times he has failed to qualify for the Australian Open. In June, he lost in the second round of qualifying at Wimbledon.

Lee, who has been living in the United States for only seven weeks, made it into the main draw of the U.S. Open this year despite losing to another Korean, Yong-Il Yoon, in the quarterfinals of a small tournament last month at Binghamton, N.Y., when he could have automatically qualified with a victory.

After a quick hamburger, he made an all-night bus trip back to New York City so he could enter the qualifying phase of a challenger event in the Bronx the next day.

Though he lost in the third round of the qualifier, he made it into the main draw of the Bronx tournament and hasn’t lost since.

The unlikely Bronx tale moved to Flushing Meadow last week, where the 181st-ranked Lee surprised U.S. Olympian Jeff Tarango in a first-round match and then upset 13th-seeded Franco Squillari of Argentina in the second.

His victory Saturday, televised live in his homeland, was his 11th in a row and upped his earnings for the tournament to $50,000, nearly double the $26,316 he had won this year before the U.S. Open qualifier.

Lee, who does not speak English, predicted through his interpreter that, if he is not in awe of the atmosphere in Arthur Ashe Stadium Monday, he’ll “put up a good fight.”

“He says that the thing he is wary of with Sampras is obviously his great serve,” said Chris Kim, his interpreter. “He says he’s going to have to work on his return. If he can return Sampras’ serve, he says the game will be a good game.”

His Monday opponent, who has not lost a set, didn’t sound overly concerned.

“I’m a lot more confident than I was at Wimbledon,” said Sampras, who despite a shin injury won his seventh title at the All-England Club two months ago. “Here, I feel like I’m obviously 100% healthy, hitting the ball fine. . . . I feel like my game is going good.”

Notes

The top-seeded men’s doubles team of Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde of Australia, who have announced that they will retire at the end of the year, were upset by Lleyton Hewitt of Australia and Max Mirnyi of Belarus, 6-1, 4-6, 7-6 (4), in a second-round match. “The Woodies,” as they are known, have won 10 Grand Slam doubles titles, two this year.

Featured Matches

The schedule of matches on the show courts and others involving seeded players. Play begins at 8 a.m. PDT:

DAY SESSION

* Marat Safin (6), Russia, vs. Sebastien Grosjean, France

* Venus Williams (3) vs. Magui Serna, Spain

* Roger Federer, Switzerland, vs. Juan Carlos Ferrero (12), Spain

* Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario (9), Spain, vs. Nathalie Tauziat (8), France

* Martina Hingis (1), Switzerland, vs. Sandrine Testud (11), France

* Alex Corretja (8), Spain, vs. Carlos Moya, Spain

* Nicolas Kiefer (14), Germany, vs. Sjeng Schalken, Netherlands

* Max Mirnyi, Belarus, vs. Magnus Norman (3), Sweden

NIGHT SESSION

* Jennifer Capriati (15) vs. Monica Seles (6)

* Todd Martin vs. Cedric Pioline (10), France

Glance

* Today on TV: USA, 9 a.m., 4:30 p.m.

* Stat of the day: 21--The number of consecutive points scored on serve during the second set of the Pete Sampras-Agustin Calleri match.

* Quote of the day: “I think she’s a really nice girl. She likes her look and everybody likes her look. But I am not here to do cinema. I am here to play tennis.”--Justine Henin, on Anna Kournikova