Sampras Regains No. 1 Spot With Three-Set Win Over Chang

Top-seeded Pete Sampras defeated two-time defending champion Michael Chang 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 Sunday to win the $328,000 Salem Open in Hong Kong, and regain his No. 1 ranking on the ATP Tour.

Sampras took over the top spot from Thomas Muster, despite the Austrian’s 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 victory over Italian Andrea Gaudenzi in the final at the Estoril Open in Portugal later Sunday.

“It’s nice to get the ranking here, and I am going to Tokyo where hopefully I can hang on to it,” said Sampras, who earned $43,000 for his 10th victory in 17 matches against his fellow American. “But as I have said before, it is the rankings at the end of the year that count.”

Sampras, trying to attack Chang’s second serve, broke the Chinese-American in the fifth game to win the first set, but Chang came back in the second set, breaking in the sixth game.

Sampras won the match with a break in the final game of the third set, outduelling Chang at the net.

Ninth-seeded Irina Spirlea of Romania became the lowest seeded player ever to win the Bausch and Lomb Championships in Amelia Island, Fla., when she defeated Mary Pierce, 6-7 (9-7), 6-4, 6-3.

In New Delhi, India, top-seeded Thomas Enqvist of Sweden overpowered third-seeded Byron Black of Zimbabwe 6-2, 7-6 (7-3) to win the Indian Open Tennis Championship.