Tennis Roundup : Becker Gets Past Annacone, Meets Connors in Semifinals

Third-seeded Boris Becker scored a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Paul Annacone Friday night in the quarterfinals of the $315,000 Volvo tennis tournament at Chicago.

The fifth-seeded Annacone, of Bridgehampton, N.Y., fell victim to the 18-year-old Becker’s mastery of the baseline, losing service in the ninth game of the opening set.

Becker will face second-seeded Jimmy Connors today in a semifinal match. Connors overcame two first-set service breaks to beat eighth-seeded Andres Gomez of Ecuador, 6-3, 6-1.

In other matches, top-seeded Ivan Lendl defeated Johan Kriek, 6-4, 6-3, and Scott Davis eliminated sixth-seeded Kevin Curren of South Africa, 5-7, 7-6, 6-4.

Unseeded Guy Forget upset second-seeded Stefan Edberg, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, in the quarterfinals of the ABN tournament at Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

Forget, a 21-year-old Frenchman, battered his Swedish opponent with strong volleys, while Edberg, the winner of last year’s Australian Open, had trouble with his own service.

Forget will meet No. 4-seeded Joakim Nystrom of Sweden in the semifinals. Nystrom beat Wojtek Fibak of Poland, 6-0, 6-1. In the 45-minute match, Fibak took only the 11th game with a service break.

Erik Jelen of West Germany continued his surprising run through the tournament by upsetting veteran Tomas Smid of Czechoslovakia, 7-6, 7-5. Jelen, ranked 119th in the world, defeated top-seeded Mats Wilander Thursday.