Tennis Roundup : Lendl Joins Becker, Edberg and Connors in Semifinals

Ivan Lendl, Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg and Jimmy Connors, the top four seeded players, scored straight-set victories Friday in the quarterfinals of the $375,000 Seiko Super tennis tournament.

Lendl, of Czechoslovakia, the No. 1-seeded player and ranked No. 1 in the world, beat Scott Davis for the ninth straight time, 6-3, 6-3.

Becker, the two-time Wimbledon champion from West Germany and the world’s No. 2-ranked player, defeated Paul Annacone, 6-2, 6-4, while Sweden’s Edberg, seeded No. 3, downed David Pate, 7-6, 6-1, and the fourth-seeded Connors eliminated Eric Jelen of West Germany, 7-6, 6-3.

Today, it will be Lendl against Edberg and Connors against Becker.

In the Lendl-Davis match, each player held service in the first two games, despite Davis’ two double faults in the second game, and broke each other’s serve in the next two games.

After Lendl won the fifth game without losing a point, Davis rallied to keep his serve in the sixth game. From there, Lendl won the last three games and the set.

Lendl then dominated the second set, breaking Davis’ serve in the third game and winning the match in 88 minutes.

In the Becker-Annacone match, Annacone won the first game without losing a point. But Becker broke in the fifth game and won the last three games to take the first set. In the second set, Becker and Annacone held service through the sixth game before Becker took three of the last four games.

At Brighton, England, No. 1-seeded Steffi Graf overcame a poor start, but No. 2 Helena Sukova of Czechoslovakia and No. 3 Claudia Kohde-Kilsch were upset in the quarterfinals of a $200,000 women’s indoor tournament.

Graf fought back to defeat Robin White, 1-6, 6-4, 6-2, in 1 hour 34 minutes to advance to the semifinals.

“I didn’t feel good out there; I don’t know why,” she said.

White said: “Steffi plays at such a fast pace, it’s very difficult. It took its toll on me in the end. I was getting very tired.

“She stays on the baseline a lot, but if she started coming into the net more, it would really get people shaking. I think she moves even better than Martina Navratilova.”

Bettina Bunge also rebounded from a first-set loss to beat Sukova, 2-6, 6-4, 6-1, while Kohde-Kilsch was ousted by No. 5 Caterina Lindqvist of Sweden, 6-2, 6-4.

In another upset, hometown favorite Jo Durie, seeded No. 7, lost to Rosalyn Fairbank of South Africa, 5-7, 6-3, 6-3.

In today’s semifinals, Graf will meet Fairbank and Bunge will play Lindqvist.

The meeting between Fairbank and the 17-year-old Graf will be their first since a tournament at Sydney, Australia, in 1983, when Graf was only 14.