Chris Evert Upset in U.S. Open : 1st Time in 17 Years She Failed to Make Event’s Semifinals

Chris Evert was upset by Lori McNeil in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open tennis championships today, the first time in 17 years she failed to make the semifinals in the tournament.

Evert, a six-time Open winner and seeded third this year, lost 3-6, 6-2, 6-4, losing her own service all five times in the final set.

“I guess that’s what happens when you get older,” the 32-year-old Evert said. “You have a few more bad days. . . .

“I felt so flat out there. I just didn’t have my timing. I wasn’t smooth and flowing. I just didn’t play a good match at all. I didn’t have control of my shots.”

It was only the second time in 50 Grand Slam tournaments that she had failed to make the semis and the first since she lost to Kathy Jordan in the third round at Wimbledon in 1983.

“I really kept the pressure on,” said the 24-year-old McNeil, the No. 11 seed from Houston. “I kept coming in, and it worked.”

In other women’s singles action today, No. 1 seed Steffi Graf of West Germany sailed past American Pam Shriver, 6-4, 6-3.

Earlier upsets claimed Boris Becker, seeded fourth among the men, and Hana Mandlikova, seeded fourth among the women.

In other matches today, second-seeded Stefan Edberg and No. 3 Mats Wilander advanced to the quarterfinals, completing rain-interrupted victories over unseeded opponents.

Edberg defeated fellow Swede Jonas Svensson 6-2, 7-6 (10-8), 6-3 and Wilander beat American Ken Flach 6-3, 6-3, 7-6 (7-4).

Both matches were suspended Tuesday because of rain.

“I was a little bit frustrated today,” Edberg said. “It was very difficult because I had such a long day yesterday.”

Wilander said: “Today I felt like a completely new match. You had to forget about the two sets yesterday. I think he played better today than I did.”

Edberg will play the winner of today’s Andrei Chesnokov-Ramesh Krishnan match in the quarterfinals.

Wilander’s quarterfinal opponent will be the winner of the match between No. 5 Miroslav Mecir and Australian Mark Woodforde.