An Ailing Noah Gets Win Over a Complaining Clerc

Ninth-seeded Yannick Noah of France suffered a pulled muscle but defeated 13th-seeded Jose-Luis Clerc of Argentina, 6-1, 7-5, Friday in a controversial match to advance to the semifinals of the $350,000 Italian Open tennis championships at Rome.

Noah, trailing 2-4 in the second set, asked for a three-minute timeout to receive medical attention for his pulled right thigh.

However, referee Franco Bartoni refused Noah permission to leave the court. After a few minutes, play resumed.

Two games later, play was halted again to let Bill Norris apply a freezing medication to Noah’s leg.

Clerc protested, insisting that Noah already had a timeout and could not have another. But he was overruled.

After the match, Clerc was still protesting Bartoni’s decision.

“Noah stopped for three minutes twice in the match, and you can’t do that,” Clerc said. But he added, “Noah served very well and that is the reason he won.”

In other matches, top-seeded Mats Wilander of Sweden defeated countryman Henrik Sundstrom, 7-5, 6-2; Boris Becker of West Germany beat Jan Gunnarsson of Sweden, 6-4, 6-4, and Miloslav Mecir of Czechoslovakia ousted Claudio Mezzadri of Italy, 6-1, 6-2.

Top-seeded Chris Evert Lloyd rallied to beat Lisa Bonder, 3-6, 6-0, 6-2, to gain a semifinal berth against Kathy Rinaldi in the $150,000 West German Women’s Open at West Berlin.

The fifth-seeded Rinaldi overpowered Catarina Lindquist of Sweden, 2-6, 6-2, 6-3.

In other matches, Bettina Bunge defeated defending champion Claudia Kohde-Kilsch of West Germany, 7-5, 7-6, and Steffi Graf of West Germany beat 1984 finalist Kathy Horvath, 6-1, 6-3.

Top-seeded Pam Shriver won her quarterfinal match in a $75,000 women’s indoor tournament at Melbourne, Australia, beating Ann Henricksson, 6-3, 6-7, 6-4.

Second-seeded Kathy Jordan also reached the semifinals with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Sharon Walsh.

Also, Barbara Potter defeated Ros Fairbank of South Africa, 6-2, 6-3, and Annabel Croft of Britain beat countrywoman Amanda Brown, 6-3, 6-4.

Eighth-seeded Trinity upset top-seeded Stanford, 5-4, in the quarterfinals of the NCAA women’s tennis championships at Oklahoma City.

The loss ended Stanford’s hopes of winning a second consecutive national title.

Trinity plays fourth-seeded Miami (Fla.) and second-seeded USC meets sixth-seeded California in today’s semifinals.

Cal beat Oklahoma State, 5-4; Miami defeated Florida, 7-2, and USC ousted San Diego State, 6-0.