Tennis Roundup : Connors Feels Heat, Lendl Feels Pressure, but Both Record Wins

Jimmy Connors, refusing to wilt in 100-degree temperatures, won the final four games to beat Todd Witsken, 6-3, 2-6, 6-2, Friday and advance to a semifinal match against top-seeded Ivan Lendl in the $232,000 D.C. tennis tournament at Washington.

Lendl, pressured for a third straight day, beat Jimmy Arias, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, in a night match.

West Germany’s Boris Becker, a 6-3, 6-2 winner over Jay Berger, will face Brad Gilbert in today’s other semifinal match. Gilbert, seeded fourth, advanced with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Marty Davis.

Czechoslovakia’s Lendl, the world’s top-ranked player, had never before lost a set to Arias in four previous meetings. But after breezing through the first set and holding a 4-3 lead in the second set, Lendl blew three straight games, two on his serve.

Lendl opened the final set with a break, but Arias got back on serve when he cashed in on his second break point of the sixth game.

Lendl then gained control with a crucial break in the ninth game, as Arias, serving at 15-30, hit a backhand deep and then netted a forehand.

Lendl served out the match at love, firing an ace in the process, to end the 2-hour 9-minute struggle.

Connors also needed three sets to get into the semifinals. Playing in temperatures that registered 104 degrees in the courtside shade, Connors pulled out of a deadlock in the final set by winning the last three points of a 16-point game to take a 3-2 lead.

Connors, seeded No. 3, then broke Witsken at 15, fought off two break points to go up 5-2 and broke serve at love to finish the 2-hour 21-minute match.

Becker, ranked No. 4 in the world, held his serve throughout the match in disposing of Berger, the tournament’s 12th seeded player.

Gilbert, playing in the same heat that humbled Connors and Witsken, remained unbeaten against Davis, using a crucial break in the second set’s seventh game to take control of the match.

Pam Shriver and Chris Evert won their singles matches against Britain as the top-seeded United States swept into the semifinals of the Federation Cup at Vancouver.

Shriver defeated Sara Gomer, 6-1, 6-3, and Evert downed Jo Durie, 6-3, 6-1, to put the U.S., the defending champion, into today’s semifinals against Bulgaria, which won its two singles matches against Australia.

Katerina Maleeva beat Anne Minter, 6-2, 6-2, and Manuela Maleeva defeated Elizabeth Smylie, 6-4, 6-4, to put the Bulgarians into the final four.

Czechoslovakia, seeded second, meets third-seeded West Germany in the other semifinal.

Wet weather delayed the start of Friday’s play by three hours and forced another 30-minute suspension during the second set of Evert’s match with Durie.

Defending champion Emilio Sanchez of Spain had to win two matches to join three Swedish players in the semifinals of the $202,500 Swedish Open at Bastad, Sweden.

Sanchez, seeded fourth, defeated Christian Bergstrom of Sweden, 4-6, 6-3, 6-1, in the second round and then set up a semifinal meeting against Sweden’s Stefan Edberg with a 6-3, 6-2 win over another Swede, Anders Jarryd.

Top-seeded Mats Wilander, gunning for a record fourth Swedish Open singles title, defeated fellow Swede Jan Gunnarsson, 6-4, 7-6, to advance to the semifinals. Earlier, Wilander beat Fernando Luna of Spain, 6-2, 6-3, in a rain-delayed second-round match.

Wilander, in all, played six sets Friday. He lost a doubles quarterfinal with Hans Simonsson, 6-2, 6-2, to Emilio and Javier Sanchez.

Edberg, seeded second, and No. 5 Joakim Nystrom also advanced to the semifinals.

Edberg, who lost last year’s semifinal to Sanchez, downed Czechoslovakian-born Pavel Vojtisek of West Germany, 6-3, 6-4, in the remaining quarterfinal.