TENNIS ROUNDUP : Sampras, Forget in Paris Final

Pete Sampras and Guy Forget advanced to the final of the Paris Open and set up a possible preview of the Davis Cup final.

Sampras came from behind to defeat Michael Chang, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3, Saturday in an All-American semifinal before Forget beat Sweden’s Jonas Svensson, 7-5, 6-4.

Sampras and Forget are almost sure to be selected to represent their countries in the Davis Cup championship matches Nov. 29-Dec.1 in Lyon.

The final also will be a rematch of their title match in the ATP Championship last August at Mason, Ohio. Forget won in what has been his biggest victory yet.

Forget made it clear which was more important to him.

“It will be a good test, but there are still three weeks to go before the Davis Cup,” Forget said. “I’ll prefer to lose tomorrow in the final and win my Davis Cup matches.”

Forget, seeded No. 5, and Sampras, No. 6, became the highest-ranked survivors in the $2-million tournament after the top four seeded players were eliminated by the third round.

The ATP Championships was one of five tournament victories this season for Forget, who also won in Bordeaux and Toulouse in France, Sydney and Brussels.

Sampras, who has won tournaments at Los Angeles, Indianapolis and Lyon this season, defeated Forget when they first met in Key Biscayne, Fla., in 1990.

Sampras beat Chang for the first time in official tournament play. Although Chang had a 5-0 mark in Grand Prix tournaments, Sampras beat Chang in the Grand Slam Cup last December.

Chang, who defeated No. 1 seeded Stefan Edberg on Thursday, played a superb first set to jump ahead of Sampras. He committed only one unforced error in eight games and took advantage of a double-fault by Sampras in the fourth game to go ahead, 3-1.

Sampras kept close until 4-2 but Chang kept up his consistent play and broke Sampras again in the eighth game. At 30-all, Chang made a delicate cross-court passing shot with Sampras at the net to gain a set point. He took it when Sampras hit a volley long.

“I was rushing in the first set,” Sampras said. “In the second and third I was more patient and served better.”

He added: “I have made a lot of progress on the baseline which is very important when you play against Chang because that’s why he puts you under pressure.”

Forget survived early service breaks to come from behind in each set to beat Svensson, who lost in the semifinals for the second consecutive year. Svensson lost to Boris Becker in 1990.

Saturday’s semifinals of the Kolynos Cup at Buzios, Brazil, were postponed by rain. Francisco Roig of Spain and Jaime Oncins of Brazil will meet this morning, followed by Javier Sanchez against Jordi Arrese, both of Spain.