Sampras Loses His Way but Wins Match

LONDON -- Struggling to regain his pre-French Open consistency, Pete Sampras conceded a set to Jonas Bjorkman before making the third round of the Queen's Club grass court tournament on a 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 scoreline. The world No. 1 appeared like the Sampras of old as he cruised Wednesday through the first set in 37 minutes in his first match on grass since winning last year's Wimbledon title. Then he lost his way. He looked shaky as he twice had his serve broken by No. 93 Bjorkman. But Sampras recovered his composure after he broke Bjorkman in the fourth game of the final set when the Swedish player double-faulted at 15-40. Sampras, who was beaten in his opening match at this tournament last year, was playing for the first time since missing out on the chance of winning his fourth straight Grand Slam title at the French Open. At Roland Garros he lost in the quarterfinals to Jim Courier. In other action Wednesday, second seed Michael Stich downed Byron Black of Zimbabwe 6-2, 6-3 and third seed Stefan Edberg ousted Australian Brent Larkham 6-2, 6-4. Goran Ivanisevic, seeded four, defeated David Wheaton 6-4, 7-5 and fifth seed Todd Martin eliminated Britain's Tim Henman 6-4, 6-4. Frenchman Cedric Pioline, who was runner-up at the U.S. Open last year, was upset 5-7, 7-5, 6-4 by South African veteran Christo Van Rensberg after holding a match point at 5-4 in the second set. Wimbledon starts June 20.