Connors Outslugs Noah in 3-Hour 45-Minute Match

Jimmy Connors, defying his own age and his opponent’s powerful serve, outslugged Yannick Noah in a four-set quarterfinal match Wednesday during the $1.8-million Lipton International Players Championship tennis tournament.

After losing the first set, Connors, 33, came back to outlast the 25-year-old Noah, 5-7, 6-4, 7-6, 6-4, in a 3-hour 45-minute match.

Noah served 30 aces to one for Connors, but Connors hit his when it counted, at match point.

The other afternoon quarterfinals were less exciting, as top-seeded Ivan Lendl of Czechoslovakia breezed past 10th-seeded Joakim Nystrom of Sweden, 6-1, 6-1, 6-4, and fifth-seeded Stefan Edberg of Sweden pounded unseeded Milan Srejber of Czechoslovakia, 6-1, 6-0, 6-2.

The last semifinal berth was decided at night when second-seeded Mats Wilander of Sweden shook off a first-set scare to beat unseeded Guy Forget of France, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4, 6-3.

The turning point for Connors came late in the third set, when he twice was stretched to deuce five times on his serve, only to pull it out both times.

“I feel like I’ve been put through the wringer,” Connors said. “But I wasn’t going to roll over at any points, and neither was he.”

Noah didn’t try to hide his disappointment in a short postmatch news conference. “I don’t remember a time when I had so many break points and I couldn’t win one.”

Wilander said he felt lucky to beat Forget. “I didn’t feel I was in the match in the first set,” Wilander said. “And then in the second set, I thought it was the match (when Forget was up 4-2 and within a point of 5-2).”

Lendl took a 6-1, 6-1, 5-2 lead before faltering a little in the end. “He’s the kind of player who can’t do too much to hurt you,” Lendl said of Nystrom. “If you play well, you can blow him away. If you play bad, he can beat you.”

The women took the day off, with the semifinals set for today. Top-seeded Chris Evert Lloyd meets ninth-seeded Kathy Rinaldi and second-seeded Steffi Graf of West Germany plays seventh-seeded Helena Sukova of Czechoslovakia.