March 26, 1997
KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. -- Top seed Pete Sampras of the United States moved into the
semifinals of the $4.45 million Lipton Championships for the fifth straight year Wednesday when
Germany's Hendrik Dreekmann, his scheduled quarterfinal opponent,
withdrew due to injury. 
Dreekmann injured his right ankle Tuesday evening when he stumbled over uneven pavement on his way back to his hotel after dinner.
"It was really dark and I didn't see the bump," Dreekmann said today. "I knew it was bad as soon as I fell to the ground."
DREEKMANN RECEIVED TREATMENT from ATP Tour trainer Bill Norris this morning and will undergo X-rays at Baptist Hospital in Miami this afternoon.
Sampras, a two-time champion, crushed Sweden's Magnus Larsson, 6-2, 6-0, Tuesday to improve to 30-5 lifetime at the Lipton Championships. He will face Spain's Sergi Bruguera, who defeated Russia's Andrei Medvedev in Wednesday's late match, 6-0, 6-3.
The 25-year-old Sampras, who won this year's Australian Open, Sybase Open and the Advanta Championships, had his 17-match winning streak stopped by Bohdan Ulihrach of the Czech Republic at the Champions Cup earlier this month. He can move past his idol, Australian great Rod Laver, into eighth on the all-time tournament titles list by winning here. Sampras has won 47 titles in his career.
IN WOMEN'S QUARTERFINAL ACTION, third seed Jana Novotna of the Czech Republic outlasted Croatia's Iva Majoli, the eighth seed, 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (9-7), in a match that lasted two hours and 24 minutes.
Novotna, who has made the semifinals or better in each of the four tournaments she has played this year, squandered two match points in the decisive tiebreak but finally advanced when Majoli hit an overhead wide on match point number three.
Novotna will meet top seed Martina Hingis in the semifinals, while fourth seed Monica Seles will battle No. 11 Barbara Paulus of Austria.
Hingis of Switzerland extended her winning streak to 27 matches with a 6-4, 6-1 victory over 10th seed Mary Joe Fernandez of the United States on Wednesday.
Hingis will become the youngest world number one when the next WTA Tour rankings are released on March 31st, taking over the top spot from injured Steffi Graf of Germany. She will be 16 years, six months of age when she claims the top spot, replacing Seles as the youngest number one ever. Seles was 17 years, three months and 19 days of age when she passed Graf on March 11th, 1991.
Graf, the three-time defending champion, has been on the shelf with an injured left knee and is not expected to return to the Tour until April at the Rexona Cup in Hamburg, Germany.
Seles, the fourth seed and two-time champion, advanced to the semifinals Tuesday with a 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 win over seventh seed Irina Spirlea of Romania.
PLAYING IN JUST her fourth match of 1997, Seles reached her first Lipton semifinal in six years. She will take on Paulus for a berth in Saturday's final. Paulus dispatched Sandrine Testud of France, 6-3, 6-3, Tuesday.
Seles, who won here in 1990 and 1991, had not played a tournament since last November, when she was forced to retire in her first-round match at the WTA Championships. She broke her right index finger and was unable to defend her Australian Open title in January. She also has been at the side of her father, Karolj, who is suffering from stomach cancer.
Of the world's top 20 male players, only number four Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia, 14th-ranked American Todd Martin and number 17 Stefan Edberg of Sweden were missing from the draw. Kafelnikov is still nursing his broken right hand, Martin is recovering from an elbow injury and Edberg is retired.
Mary Pierce of France, ranked 13th, is suffering from a strained right calf and was not entered. Sixth-ranked Conchita Martinez of Spain also is missing.
Other than the Grand Slams, the Lipton Championships is one of a handful of tournaments that blend the men's and women's tours.
The prize money is lucrative, with the men's winner receiving $360,000 and the women's champion $215,000.
Sampras' slump doesn't last long