After Close Calls, Connors, Lendl to Meet in Semifinals

Jimmy Connors, playing despite a back injury, defeated Aaron Krickstein, 7-5, 6-2, 6-3, with the help of a replayed point Friday night to advance to the semifinals of the $500,000 WCT Finals at Dallas.

In a later match, Ivan Lendl rallied to beat Stefan Edberg, 3-6, 7-6, 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, for the right to meet Connors.

Today’s other semifinal match will be between Joakim Nystrom and Tim Mayotte, who upset John McEnroe and Mats Wilander, respectively, Thursday.

Krickstein, who broke Connors’ serve twice en route to a 4-2 lead in the first set, apparently broke Connors again for a 5-3 lead. However, Connors complained that the ball broke when he hit it. Officials ordered a replay. Connors won the point and later pulled into a 4-4 tie. Eventually, after 69 minutes, he won the set, 7-5.

“I didn’t know the ball was broken,” Krickstein said. “It didn’t break on my shot. That was a pretty big point.”

“I haven’t had too many broken tennis balls in my career, but I’m sure he would have asked to replay the point if it had happened to him,” Connors said.

Connors suffered a pulled back muscle last week in Chicago and had to default in the championship match against McEnroe. But he came to Dallas and worked out the problem. He is also still scheduled to play at the Forum in Inglewood Monday.

Defending champion Chris Evert Lloyd and second-seeded Manuela Maleeva won their quarterfinal matches at Hilton Head Island, S.C., but rain caused postponement of two other matches in the $200,000 Family Circle tournament.

Lloyd took less than an hour to defeat Virginia Ruzici, 6-2, 6-0, and Maleeva beat Barbara Potter, 6-4, 6-2.

Rain, however, provided a respite for 14-year-old Gabriella Sabatina of Argentina as she trailed Pam Shriver, 7-5, 4-3. Petra Huber was at set point to tie her match with 11th-seeded Steffi Graf of West Germany when rain halted play at 1-6, 6-5.