Sampras said he has "a pretty substantial tear" of his right hip flexor muscle and is expected to need 3-4 weeks to recover.

	Pete Sampras was in control Thursday until he let the match slip away in the fourth set.

Sampras tore the muscle scrambling for some shots early in his five-set, semifinal loss Thursday night against Andre Agassi.

"It certainly didn't help my movement," Sampras said. "But he played great. I didn't come here to talk about the match."

Sampras, who had declined to play Davis Cup last year, declined to say how new U.S. captain John McEnroe reacted to news of the injury.

"He was at dinner," Sampras said. "It probably wasn't the best news he's had."

Dr. David Bolzonello, the tournament doctor, said that trying to play again too soon would risk further problems.

Bolzonello said an MRI showed that in the hip muscle, "about 30 percent of the fiber is damaged. There is a lot of bleeding around that."

Sampras, who served 37 aces in the match, appeared on the verge of victory in his fourth-set tiebreaker against Agassi after a minibreak put him ahead 4-3. But Agassi rebounded for a 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (0), 7-6 (5), 6-1 victory in reaching his fourth consecutive Grand Slam tournament final.

It was Sampras' second five-set match of the tournament.

In what had been considered a preview of the Davis Cup first-round meeting, he had come back after losing the first two sets to beat Zimbabwe's Wayne Black 6-7 (9), 3-6, 6-3, 7-5, 6-3.

Sampras said the new injury was not related to the back injury that kept him out of the U.S. Open last year.

"I don't know if it's a result of too much tennis," Sampras said. "I had a break last year."

Sampras skipped last year's Australian Open, citing fatigue. Set back also by his absence from the U.S. Open, he dropped to No. 3 after holding the year-end No. 1 ranking for six consecutive years.

He beat Agassi in the Wimbledon final, but Agassi won the French and U.S. Opens and climbed to the top rank after falling as low as 141st in November 1997.

Thursday's injury came "at a point where I did a lot of running," Sampras said. "I kind of played through it the rest of the match. I did a lot of scrambling, and I felt it happen."