MUNICH. Dec 11: World number one Pete Sampras beat Goran Ivanisevic in a nerve-Jang-

ling five set thriller to advance to the final of the six million dollar Grand Siam Cup and a shot atfthe biggest payout in tennis, reports Reuter.

Sampras needed six match points to squeeze past the bigserving Croat 5-7. 6-3. 6-4. 6-7. 10-8 in a 3-1 /2 hour showdown that was a repeat of his Wimbledon final win this year.

The match set up an intriguing final against Swedish giant-killer Magnus Larsson.

Neu content with helping Sweden win the Davis Cup a week ago and dispatching Stefan Edberg and Andre Agassi here in Munich, the Swedish world number 19 needed Just one hour 15 minutes to sweep aside Todd Martin of the US 6-4. 6-1. 6-1 in the other semifinal.

If Sampras wins Sunday's decider, he will take home two million dollars. Including 250.000 dollars for each of the two Grand Slam events he has won this year

Larsson would get 1.5 million — but even that would nearly double his lifetime earn tngv

Asked if he was starling to lire after the best week ol his career Larsson did not have to search long for an answer.

Sampras and Ivanisevic had already prosed Hie point

But despite being played at high speed, their match came alive only at the end of the fourth set thanks to the pre dictable domination of service on the super-fast carpet of Munich’s Olympic Hall

Ivanisevic, who finished with 41 aces, produced one of his huge serves to stave off the only break point of the set at 5 5 Then found return win ners to take the tie-break and level the match at two sets all

The fifth set went with service until the IOth game, when Sampras earned three match points. But his nerve weakened as he waited for

Ivanisevic to make a mistake, and the Croat held on.

For once, unlike Andre Agassi who fell apart to Larsson after a temper tantrum on Friday, Ivanisevic fought visibly to control his frustration and usually succeeded.

Fighting off two more match points at 7-8 lie smashed his racket into the net when an apparent ace was' called a let, but with a mighty effort he checked his temper and held the game.

Sampras said he had been haunted by the memory of last year's semifinal against Czech Petr Korda when he squandered five match points and lost in the fifth set.

"I wasn't playing the match points aggressively." the American said. "1 was Just thinking about the nightmare last year...I was beginning to ihink it wasn't meant to be." But two games later Sampras at last went for broke and pinned Ivanisevic back to 0-40. sealing the victory on his sixth match point as Ivanisevic over-hit.

Sampras' thoughts were also on his coach ■ Tim Gullikson. who had been taken to a Munich hospital after feeling unwell, and was diagnosed as having a blood clot on the brain. He was expected -to be discharged at the weekend.

The win gave Sampras a chance to be the first man to

win both season-ending indoor events — the ATP World Championship and Grand Slam Cup — in one year

He can also become the first player to take out the Grand Slam Cup twice following his win In 1990.

For Ivanisevic. ebnqueror of local hero Boris Becker earlier In the week, there was the consolation of having given Sampras a much closer run than at Wimbledon, where the American won in straight sets.

He also had reason to be thankful for being able to play while suspended by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for accumulating more than 10.000 dollars in fines this year.

The International Tennis Federation (TTF), which runs the Munich event, chose to overlook the suspension.

But ft still fined Ivanisevic 1,000 dollars for swearing in his quarter-final against Becker.

On Saturday Agassi was fined 6.000 dollars for an audible obscenity and verbal abuse of the umpire during his losing quarter-final against Larsson on Friday.

The fine was unlikely to make much of a dent in the 500.000 dollar cheque Agassi took home from Munich, including a 250.000 dollars bonus for being US Open champion.