Kalfelnikov-Larsson final?

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Saturday, August 15, 1998

Magnus Larsson has three straight wins over Pete Sampras. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

MASON -- For all the upsets, for all the big names ousted this week, the final four at the Great American Insurance ATP Championship still includes three top-10 players, a couple of marquee faces and the dominant player of this era.

But the biggest upsets may come in today's semifinals. The people's choice for a dream final Sunday is Pete Sampras and Patrick Rafter. On paper, it seems like the logical choice. But remember: Rafter is 0-3 vs. his semifinal opponent, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, and Sampras has dropped three straight to his opponent, Magnus Larsson.

Here's a look at the semifinalists:

Yevgeny Kafelnikov hasn't lost a set in three matches against Patrick Rafter. (Ernest Coleman photo) | ZOOM |

• Defending champion Sampras is aiming toward his first victory since winning Wimbledon and trying to build momentum for the U.S. Open, which starts Aug. 31. He is No. 2 in the world and playing like No. 1.

• Larsson is the first unseeded semifinalist in four years and only the 10th since the tourney moved to Mason in 1979. He is ranked No. 37.

• Rafter, tennis' male sex symbol and the 1997 U.S. Open champion, is seeking his second Mercedes Super 9 title in two weeks.

  He moved to No. 3 in the rankings after last week's victory in Toronto. Rafter became the first Australian to reach the semifinals here since '79.

• Kafelnikov, ranked 10th and seeded seventh, is trying to get to his third career Super 9 final and first since Paris (indoors) in 1996. He has never won a Super 9 event.

ATP PAGE

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