Sport Briefly / Tennis: Sampras suffers rare defeat

Pete Sampras lost for the first time in three months when he went down 3-6, 7-6, 6-2 against Michael Stich in a high-class match at the World Team Cup. The American was outwitted by an inspired Stich, who saved two match points in the second set before winning in 1hr 56min. It was only the third defeat of the season for Sampras, who had won 30 matches since losing at an indoor tournament in Philadelphia on 15 February. Bernd Karbacher then beat Michael Chang 6-4, 6-2 to give Germany a winning 2-0 lead in the final round of round-robin blue group matches at the team event.