NEW YORK -- It was a night of paybacks for Pete Sampras, conquering a personal tormentor and edging closer to regaining the U.S. Open titles he once held.

	Pete Sampras was down a set, and down 2-6 in the second-set tiebreaker when he reached down and started his comeback.

For the four-time champion Sampras, it was a sweet 4-6, 7-6 (6), 6-4, 6-2 defeat Wednesday of Richard Krajicek, who had the best record against him of any active player and was the only man to beat him at Wimbledon in the past eight years.

Sampras moved into the semifinals against Lleyton Hewitt, a 19-year-old Australian who is seeking to become the youngest winner since Sampras won his first title in 1990.

The 6-foot-5 Krajicek, who beat Sampras en route to winning Wimbledon in 1996 and had held a 6-3 record against him, sought to impose his big serve on Sampras once again. He did just that in the first set and wound up with 23 aces, but the match turned on a spellbinding comeback by Sampras from 2-6 in the second-set tiebreaker.

Facing four set points, Sampras saved them all. First came a spectacular drop volley that nicked the net cord. Next there was a forehand return that Sampras mis-hit but saw land safely for a winner. He then drilled a perfect backhand pass into the corner and pumped his fist to the crowd.

When he saved number four with an approach shot that Krajicek netted, and followed it up with a service winner and a sizzling return winner to close out the set, Sampras delivered an uppercut to the air that might as well have been straight to Krajicek's jaw.

"It was his tiebreaker, somehow," said Krajicek, who couldn't figure out how it slipped away. "It was meant to be that he would win that set. I don't know."

The match was virtually over right there as Krajicek sagged visibly and Sampras kept up the pressure.

"I was getting outplayed," said Sampras, now 14-0 in night matches at the Open. "Richard puts a lot of pressure on my service game. I thought I was gone. Richard always plays me tough. After I won the second set, Richard got a little down. The second set turned the match around. I was making him play. It was a big match."

Hewitt, seeded No. 9, beat Frenchman Arnaud Clement 6-2, 6-4, 6-3 Wednesday to become the youngest men's semifinalist since Sampras during his title run in 1990. Sampras was also 19 at the time, but five months younger.

With four tour titles this year and a victory over Sampras on the grass at Queen's Club just before Wimbledon, Hewitt is hardly a surprise to have gone this far at the Open. Yet, he said he didn't believe at the start that he had a real shot of winning his first Grand Slam title.

"I didn't come here to win it," he said. "It would probably have been a bit stupid for me to come out and say, 'I'm going to win the tournament' when I haven't made the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam going into this event.

"That's not really realistic coming here and saying I'm going to knock off Agassi, Sampras, Krajicek, whoever, win this tournament (against) all these great champions who have been in that situation before. I definitely gave myself a chance of making the second week, being seeded here, knowing that these courts do suit my game, with the humidity and the conditions. But it really has been a bonus to make it through to the semifinals now."

And now he is looking at the tournament a lot more positively.

"I'm hitting the ball well at the moment," he said. "Anyone through to the semifinals feels they're hitting the ball well and giving themselves a chance."

And that includes Hewitt.