Tennis Roundup : Lloyd, Graf Are Winners in Boca Raton Semifinals

Veteran Chris Evert Lloyd, patiently waiting until her mirror image cracked, outlasted Kathy Rinaldi, 7-6, 6-1, Thursday night in the $1.8-million Lipton International Players Championship tennis tournament at Boca Raton, Fla., to set up a title match against 16-year-old Steffi Graf of West Germany.

The second-seeded Graf, 16, firing winners from both sides while her opponent shot blanks with her usually powerful serve, defeated Czechoslovakia’s Helena Sukova, 6-2, 6-1, in just 50 minutes in an afternoon semifinal.

The 2-hour 1-minute night match was a baseline battle between two consistent players with weak serves and two-handed backhands. It turned into a war of nerves, with points frequently lasting 20 or more shots.

Lloyd, seeded first, won the most important point when she was trailing, 6-5, in the tiebreaker. After the two baseliners traded 41 shots, Lloyd stepped into a short one by Rinaldi and fired a passing shot down the line.

After saving that set point, Lloyd went on to win the next two points as Rinaldi made two unforced errors after long rallies.

Rinaldi, seeded ninth, broke Lloyd in the first game of the second set, but Lloyd broke back in the next game and never lost another.

“I’ve never played her when she’s played that well,” Lloyd said. “She just got every ball back in the first set. She didn’t give me any cheap points. She didn’t make any errors.”

Graf looked unbeatable against Sukova, hitting 16 outright winners with her powerful top-spin forehand. She even had four winners with her usually defensive backhand.

“I really felt I couldn’t miss, especially after the first set,” Graf said. “I just played great.

“I can’t remember when I’ve ever felt like that, especially against (someone like) her. She’s a really good player.”

Sukova was too stunned to be devastated.

“She went so much for her shots, and all of them were going in,” the 19-year-old Czech said. “This doesn’t happen every day.”

UCLA defeated Oklahoma State, 5-1; USC beat Miami, 5-0, and Pepperdine downed Brigham Young, 7-1, in the first round of the National Indoor Intercollegiate men’s team championship at Louisville, Ky. Top-ranked Stanford defeated Harvard, 5-3, although Cardinal star Dan Goldie was beaten by Harvard’s Larry Scott, 6-1, 6-4.

Rod Laver rode a pair of service breaks in each set and a strong serve to an easy 6-2, 6-3 victory over Mal Anderson in a $45,000 Grand Masters tournament at New Canaan, Conn.