Tennis Roundup : Edberg Reaches Semifinals With Win Over McEnroe

Stefan Edberg defeated John McEnroe for the first time ever Thursday to join McEnroe, Ivan Lendl and Jimmy Connors in the semifinals of the $500,000 AT&T; Challenge at Atlanta.

Edberg won, 6-3, 7-6.

Lendl was extended to three sets but still pulled out a 6-3, 6-7, 7-6 victory by winning a 10-8 third-set tiebreaker over Yannick Noah.

Earlier, Connors defeated Andres Gomez, 6-0, 3-6, 6-2. In another match, Kevin Curren downed Anders Jarryd, 6-4, 6-1.

McEnroe, who was suffering from lingering effects of a 24-hour stomach virus, had lost only 17 games in three previous matches with Edberg.

“I served extremely well,” Edberg said. “I can’t serve any better. I feel very good, very good.”

Edberg, who won the Australian Open and led Sweden to the Davis Cup in December, said the victory would give him confidence in future matches with McEnroe.

“It’s very important,” he said. “I always thought it would be hard to beat him. I need to play him a lot because he’s got a very hard game to read.”

McEnroe said the effects of the flu hampered his game.

“My legs felt kind of dead,” he said. “I couldn’t really move. It’s frustrating. It’s a match where I needed to feel better.”

But the 26-year-old New Yorker praised Edberg.

“He should be proud of his accomplishments. He has a good shot to improve. He’s obviously got a little more confidence because of his successful results.”

Lendl’s victory left him the only undefeated player after the preliminary rounds of the round-robin tournament. He will play McEnroe tonight. Connors and Edberg will meet in the other semifinal this afternoon.

In the $150,000 Virginia Slims tournament at Washington, top-seeded Martina Navratilova halted the upset bid of 15-year-old Susan Sloane, 6-3, 6-1.

The victory moved Navratilova, the tournament’s No. 1-seeded player, into the quarterfinals, where she will meet fifth-seeded Zina Garrison.

Sloane, who was ranked for the first time at No. 241 this week, admitted she was a little in awe of her surroundings.

“I couldn’t believe it was Martina,” said the 1985 national 18-and-under champion from Lexington, Ky.

The two split the first four games of the opening set before Navratilova took command to win in 46 minutes.

Also advancing to the quarterfinals were Claudia Kohde-Kilsch of West Germany and Helena Sukova of Czechoslovakia. Kohde-Kilsch, seeded No. 3, defeated Australia’s Wendy Turnbull, 6-4, 6-4. Sukova, seeded No. 6, ousted Yugoslavia’s Sabrina Goles, 6-0, 6-4.