ATLANTA. Georgia. May 4: Top seed Pete Sampras gutted out a 6-7, 6-3, 7-6 victory over second seed Jason Stoltenberg to win the 315,000 dollar AT and T Challenge, reports AP.

It was Just thq» third title on clay for Sampras, who has 54 career victories.

'Well, I've won one every three years." said a smiling Sampras, who collected 45.000 dollars for his two-hour. 40-minute effort. "It's been a tough week, and it was a war out there today. We were both very solid. He didn’t give me any free points, and it could have gone either way."

Despite playing on a rain-soaked court once again, thanks to morning showers that caused a 50-mlnute delay, the players started strongly Sunday. Both executed well, but neither gained momentum by capitalising on the few break points (two for Stoltenberg, one for Sampras) in the first set.

It was only the second title of 1998 for Sampras, who won on indoor hard courts in Philadel-Ghia. He has had some prob-:ms this year and struggled here, with a couple of close calls in the early rounds.

The French Open, tennis' most prestigious clay-court tournament, starts May 25. Sampras, who holds 10 Grand Slam titles, but has reached the semifinals Just once (1996) at Roland Garros, still feels hopeful.

"People see this result, see I'm winning a tournament, it's great for my confidence going into Rome, though the competition obviously will be a lot tougher than here," said Sampras, who will play in the Italian Open in two weeks. He won that event in 1994.