Tennis Roundup : Connors Gains Semifinals With Victory Over Gomez

Jimmy Connors defeated Andres Gomez of Ecuador, 6-0, 3-6, 6-2, Thursday to earn a berth in the semifinals of the $500,000 AT&T; Challenge at Atlanta.

In another match, Kevin Curren defeated Anders Jarryd of Sweden, 6-4, 6-1.

John McEnroe was to play Stefan Edberg, and Ivan Lendl was to meet Yannick Noah in later matches Thursday.

The tournament features round-robin competition within two four-player groups. The two players in each group with the best records advance to today’s semifinals.

Connors started fast against Gomez, breaking his serve three times in the first set which lasted 26 minutes. A service break by Gomez in the fifth game of the second set helped him even the match.

But Connors grabbed an early break in the final set and never trailed again.

Curren needed only 60 minutes to beat Jarryd, who upset Edberg earlier in the tournament.

West Germany’s Claudia Kohde-Kilsch and Czechoslovakia’s Helena Sukova moved into the quarterfinals of a $150,000 Virginia Slims tournament at Washington.

Kohde-Kilsch, the tournament’s No. 3-seeded player, defeated Australia’s Wendy Turnbull, 6-4, 6-4. Sukova, seeded No. 6, beat Yugoslavia’s Sabrina Goles, 6-0, 6-4.

No. 1-seeded Martina Navratilova was scheduled to play her second-round match Thursday nightnight against Susan Sloane.

Kohde-Kilsch, battling her own serve as much as her opponent in the early going, spotted Turnbull a 3-0 lead in the first set before righting herself. The 22-year-old West German was guilty of 10 double faults in the match, seven in the first set.

The key game of the match was the 10th and deciding game of the first set. Kohde-Kilsch outlasted Turnbull for the game after 22 points.

“The last two times we played it went three sets after Wendy won the first set. I knew this was an important game and if I could win the first set she would really be discouraged,” Kohde-Kilsch said.

Sukova breezed through the first seven games of her match with Goles to win the first set and take a 1-0 lead in the second set when a canister of cola at a concession stand exploded, disrupting play.

The explosion, which did not injury anyone, served to wake up Goles, who won three of the next four games.

The rally ended, however, as Sukova, rushing to the net and using her 6-foot-1 inch frame to cut off the court, broke Goles’ serve in the seventh game, taking a 4-3 lead she would never surrender.