MEN’S TENNIS / LOS ANGELES TOURNAMENT : Sampras Rolls Over Sznajder

For Pete Sampras, the only thing faster than his serve was his first-round match Tuesday night.

Sampras splashed eight aces on the court at UCLA, sprinted past Andrew Sznajder in 65 minutes at the Volvo/Los Angeles tournament and then revealed his favorite way to win a match.

“Steamroll,� he said.

So much for sort of working his way into a tournament. Last week at Montreal, Sampras didn’t have much of a chance to work his way in, mainly because he was upset by Brett Steven in the second match he played.

It wasn’t exactly the way Sampras envisioned his post-Wimbledon days and the start of his hard-court prelude to the U.S. Open. But at least he knew why he lost.

“Didn’t play well,� Sampras said.

He couldn’t say that this time. The No. 156-ranked Sznajder won only 12 points on Sampras’ serve and bowed out quickly, 6-1, 6-2.

It was all part of the plan, Sampras said.

“I didn’t want to play an extra set,� he said. “I wanted to save the shins. I wasn’t sure how I was going to play, but it worked out.�

It was a degree of doubt shared by Aaron Krickstein, who experienced a similar result.

Krickstein walked off the court at UCLA, which is a lot different than how he left it last year when he was carted away after breaking a foot.

Krickstein upset No. 6-seeded Wayne Ferreira, 4-6, 6-0, 6-3, and moved closer to a potential quarterfinal match against Michael Chang.

A year ago, Krickstein was moving on crutches. It was in his semifinal match against Mark Woodforde that Krickstein set up for a volley, planted his left foot and fractured it in two places.

Doctors placed two screws in his foot and he was on crutches for 12 weeks. His ranking quickly fell ill, dropping from 14 to 108.

A year later, Krickstein’s ranking is back up to No. 54, his foot feels pretty good and he’s only 26, so he decided to come back to UCLA, but not to hit any more volleys while he’s there.

“I’m not going to serve and volley, I’ll tell you that,� he said. “And I won’t. That was the only time I even tried to volley last year.�

Ferreira tried several, but he made far too few. However, he was able to identify the main problem areas he had against Krickstein, blaming the speed of the courts, the sun and the chair umpire.

Other than that, it was clear sailing for Ferreira.

Not so for Mikael Pernfors, who followed up his totally unexpected victory in last week’s tournament in Montreal with a semi-expected first-round loss two days later.

Pernfors was overwhelmed by second-seeded Michael Stich, 6-2, 6-4, but didn’t seem to care too much. “I could lose first round the rest of the year and it wouldn’t bother me,� said Pernfors, whose ranking was 1,001 in 1991 and improved from 95 to 37 after he won at Montreal.

It took 2 hours 24 minutes for player-author Brad Gilbert to grind past Luiz Mattar, 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2, proving that Gilbert’s new book is aptly titled. It’s called “Winning Ugly.�

Mattar had nine double faults and made only 39% of his first serves. Said Gilbert, who also had nine double faults: “That was as ugly as it possibly can get.�

Tennis Notes

Richard Krajicek fired 13 aces in a 7-6 (7-2), 6-3 victory over Gianluca Pozzi. . . . Mauricio Hadad, a 21-year-old Colombian who had a 2-4 record in ATP Tour events, defeated Derrick Rostagno in three sets and will play Pete Sampras next.