Tennis Roundup : Gurney Upsets Nagelsen to Advance to Semifinals

Unseeded Melissa Gurney recorded a third straight upset victory, beating fifth-seeded Betsy Nagelsen, 6-0, 6-4, Friday night in the quarterfinals of a $75,000 Virginia Slims tournament at the San Diego Hilton Beach and Tennis Resort.

Gurney, ranked 73rd in the world, advanced to a semifinal match against Caroline Kuhlman today.

After breezing through the first set, Gurney faced a 4-2 deficit in the second set before taking four straight games from Nagelsen, ranked 34th in the world.

“When I fell behind, 4-2, I got mad at myself,” said Gurney, a 17-year-old from the Palos Verdes Peninsula. “I was thinking that I won the first set and I shouldn’t go three sets. So, I decided to play much harder.”

Earlier, Gurney had defeated Anne White, the tournament’s No. 3-seeded player, and Wendy White, who is ranked No. 50 in the world.

In Friday’s other quarterfinal, fourth-seeded Kate Gompert beat Dinky Van Rensburg of South Africa, 6-4, 0-6, 6-4, and will meet second-seeded Stephanie Rehe today. They are the only players remaining among the top four seeded players in the tournament.

The fourth game of the third set was the turning point for Gompert, 23, of Rancho Mirage. She withstood three break points to tie the score at 2-2, and three games later, she broke Van Rensburg’s serve to take a 4-3 lead en route to victory.

At Washington, Jimmy Arias and Karel Novacek registered upset victories to join Andres Gomez and Thierry Tulasne in the semifinals of the $220,000 D.C. tournament.

Arias, seeded fifth, rallied to beat third-seeded Martin Jaite of Argentina, 3-6, 7-6, 6-3, in 2 hours 18 minutes after losing the first set and trailing, 4-3, in the second.

Jaite was trying to reach the final here for a second straight year.

Novacek, the only unseeded player left in the tournament, scored a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Sweden’s Kent Carlsson, who was seeded sixth. The Czechoslovakian, ranked No. 110 in the world, had never before reached the semifinals of a major Grand Prix event.

Earlier, Gomez routed Aaron Krickstein, 6-4, 6-1, in 59 minutes, while Tulasne won 10 games in a row en route to a 6-1, 6-3 win over Sweden’s Johan Carlsson (no relation to Kent).

The top-seeded Gomez will play Novacek in one semifinal, while Arias will meet the second-seeded Tulasne in the other.

Defending champion Jimmy Connors defeated David Pate, 6-2, 7-6, Friday in the quarterfinals of the Paine Webber Invitational at the Beaver Creek resort near Vail, Colo.

In other matches, Tim Mayotte beat Kevin Curren, 6-4, 6-4; Paul Annacone defeated fourth-seeded Johan Kriek, 6-4, 6-4, and third-seeded Brad Gilbert ousted Tom Gullikson, 6-3, 7-6.

Seventh-seeded Thomas Muster of Austria upset top-seeded Miloslav Mecir of Czechoslovakia, 4-6, 7-6, 7-5, to reach the semifinals of a $100,000 Grand Prix tournament at Hilversum, the Netherlands.