Tennis Roundup : Teltscher Finally Defeats Connors

Eliot Teltscher won the battle of the baseline by mixing in a series of spectacular forehands to upset second-seeded Jimmy Connors, 6-3, 6-1, Friday in the quarterfinal round of the $315,000 Volvo Chicago tennis tournament.

In today’s semifinals, Teltscher will face third-seeded Tim Mayotte, and Bill Scanlon will play David Pate.

Mayotte defeated Peter Fleming, 6-2, 6-3; Scanlon beat sixth-seeded Scott Davis, 6-3, 6-3, and Pate, seeded eighth, defeated Mel Purcell, 7-5, 6-4.

Teltscher’s win marked the first time the native of Palos Verdes Estates was able to beat Connors in 16 meetings dating back to 1979.

Connors raced to an early 2-0 first-set advantage with a break in the opening game. But Teltscher put aside his own serving problems by breaking Connors in the sixth and eighth games for a 5-3 advantage, then took the first set when Connors hit a return into the net.

Connors lost the opening serve of the second set en route to a 4-0 deficit. He held service in the fifth game but withered under Teltscher’s relentless attack.

Boris Becker of West Germany defeated Jacob Hlasek of Switzerland, 6-4, 6-2, to advance to the semifinals of the $345,000 Fila Trophy indoor tournament at Milan, Italy.

Becker, the top-seeded player, will be pitted against Slobodan Zivojinovic of Yugoslavia in today’s semifinals. Zivojinovic advanced by beating Paolo Cane of Italy, 6-1, 6-1.

Second-seeded Miloslav Mecir defeated fellow Czech Tomas Smid, 6-4, 6-4, and will face Mats Wilander today.

Wilander, playing unusually aggressive tennis, easily defeated Spaniard Emilio Sanchez, 6-3, 6-1.

Top-seeded Hana Mandlikova withdrew from the U.S. Women’s Indoor tennis championships at Piscataway, N.J., complaining of a pulled stomach muscle.

With Mandlikova unable to play Lori McNeil in the semifinals, McNeil advanced to today’s final against Helena Sukova.

Mandlikova, ranked fourth in the world, suffered her injury during the final of a tournament at Washington last week, when she defeated Barbara Potter.

“It’s unfortunate but it’s a recuring injury, and we didn’t want to take any further risks,” said Betty Stove, Mandlikova’s coach. “She’s very unhappy because she thought she could win.”

Sukova, seeded second, gained a berth in the final of the $150,000 tournament with a 6-3, 7-5 victory over unseeded Gigi Fernandez of Puerto Rico in a 66-minute semifinal.

Top-seeded Manuela Maleeva and second-seeded Raffaella Reggi advanced to the semifinals of the $75,000 Wild Dunes Women’s International tournament at Isle of Palms near Charleston, S.C.

Maleeva, of Bulgaria, defeated Halle Cioffi of Knoxville, 6-0, 6-4, while Reggi, of Italy, beat Wiltrud Propst of West Germany, 6-4, 6-3, to advance to today’s semifinals.

In other quarterfinal matches on the clay-court surface at Wild Dune Stadium Court, Bettina Fulco of Argentina downed Sandra Cecchini of Italy, 6-0, 2-6, 6-2, and Jana Novotna of Czechoslovakia edged Kate Gompert of Rancho Mirage, 6-1, 7-6.

Today, Maleeva will play Fulco and Reggi will face Novotna.