PHILADELPHIA.

Mar 1: Pete Sampras stretched his reign as the world's number-one player to 99 con-j secutive weeks on Sunday on I winning his first tournament of the season — beating third-seed Thomas Enqvist in the final of the Advanta Championships.

I reports AFP.

I But the 26-year-old Ameri-: can was pushed hard before he i gratefully snatched a 7-5. 7-6 (7/3) victory over the stubborn Swede who once gain displayed ' the excellent form which en-

abled him to triumph in Marseille three weeks ago.

Sampras, who hadn't won a title since his success at the ATP Championships in Hanover last November and who was beaten by Andre Agassi in the San Jose final two weeks ago. was clearly determined to set the record straight.

Having been under pressure earlier in the week when Australian Open champion Petr Korda had an outside chance of overtaking him in the rankings a chance which disappeared when the Czech bowed out before the quarterfinals of the

ATP event at Batersea Park in London. Sampras desperately wanted a win in Philadelphia to restore his confidence.

Against Enqvist he started well, breaking the Swede in the second game, but he came dangerously close to letting Enqvist off the hook when he was serving for the set at 5-3 by doublefaulting to allow his opponent back to 5-4. but he made no mistakes in the next game, taking the set with a wonderful forehand cross-court passing shot.

In the second set Enqvist kept up the pressure with his nagging baseline accuracy and he broke Sampras in the third game.

The world number-one fought back, not without a little help from a net-cord shot, to make it 4-4 and then punished the Swede in the tie-break and took the title-with- anotheresu-perb cross-court forehand? '

'You can not afford to make an error, if you do that, you're going to lose to him of or sure," said Enqvist, who has now lost seven of eight matches against the American.

Sampras who won the first of his 53 career titles in Philadelphia in 1990. also won the event in 1992 and 1997.