Tennis Roundup : Smid, Davis, Mayotte, Gunnarsson Advance

Czechoslovakia’s Tomas Smid, Sweden’s Jan Gunnarsson, and Americans Scott Davis and Tim Mayotte captured semifinal berths Wednesday in the upset-filled $1.8-million Lipton International Players Championships at Delray Beach, Fla.

Smid ousted France’s Yannick Noah, 6-3, 6-3, 7-5; Davis shocked Stefan Edberg of Sweden, 6-1, 6-4, 7-5, and Mayotte downed Mike Leach, 6-2, 6-3, 6-2.

Smid was brilliant, passing Noah whenever the Frenchman came to the net, and winning the baseline battles.

Davis, a former All-American at Stanford, rode his powerful serve and surprisingly effective groundstroke to victory over Edberg.

Edberg found his own powerful serve being returned viciously, and when he came to the net, Davis found the seams with passing shots.

Mayotte breezed past the left-handed Leach by stopping his big serve with powerful returns off both sides. Leach was deserted by the serve that carried him over both Jimmy Arias and Mats Wilander, and Mayotte jumped all over his second serve.

In the last men’s quarterfinal, Gunnarsson, No. 51 in the world rankings, continued the upset march by eliminating Vitas Gerulaitis, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2.

“This is the best I’ve done in my whole career, reaching the semifinals of a big tournament like this,” Gunnarsson said. “I think the people in Sweden will be surprised to see me in the semifinals.”

In women’s play, Canada’s Carling Bassett, the No. 10 seed, upset seventh-seeded Hana Mandlikova of Czechoslovakia, 7-5, 6-2. Bassett will face top-seeded Martina Navratilova in today’s semifinals, while second-seeded Chris Evert Lloyd will meet unseeded Steffi Graf of West Germany.

Cliff Richey breezed to a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Charlie Pasarell in the opening round of the $40,000 Hayes Classic for players 35-years-old and older at La Quinta, Calif.

In other matches, Ray Moore of South Africa downed countryman Frew McMillan, 6-0, 6-1; Colin Dibley beat Owen Davidson, 6-3, 6-2, in a match of Australians.