Tennis : Fernandez Upsets Sabatini in Three Sets

Mary Joe Fernandez stunned third-seeded Gabriela Sabatini of Argentina, 6-4, 6-7, 6-3, Sunday night to join Steffi Graf of West Germany in the women’s quarterfinals of the Lipton International Players Championships.

Fernandez, a 16-year-old high school junior from Miami, is seeded 15th in the two-week tournament and ranked No. 20 in the world. Sabatini, riding high after an upset of Graf last week at Boca Raton, Fla., is ranked No. 5.

“It was great for tennis that Gabby was able to beat Steffi last week. . . . Hopefully, this will be great for me. I’m very happy I won,” said Fernandez, who lost to Sabatini, 7-6, 6-3, in the quarterfinals of the Boca Raton tournament 10 days ago .

Fernandez advanced to the quarterfinals against Elna Reinach of South Africa, who defeated Linda Ferrando of Italy, 6-0, 6-2, in a fourth-round match.

“I don’t think it was the pressure,” said the 17-year-old Sabatini, who all week had been besieged with questions about the significance of her first career victory against Graf, the world’s top-ranked women’s player.

“From the beginning I didn’t play well,” she added. “I won the second set and thought I would win the third. I saw she was getting a little tired.”

Fernandez credited the victory to her ability to fight off leg cramps in the third set and work her way to the net on key points.

“I had the beginnings of cramps, but I kept stretching to get rid of them,” she said. “If I thought about them too much, I might not have won the match. Being aggressive won the match for me.”

Graf and Sweden’s Mats Wilander, the top-seeded players in the $2.1-million tournament, also advanced to the quarterfinals. Graf beat Joe Durie of Britain, 6-1, 6-2, and Wilander defeated Mark Woodforde of Australia, 7-6, 6-2, 6-1.

Graf dropped the first game of her match with Durie, but won the next 11.

Meanwhile, Chris Evert, the second-seeded woman, beat Terry Phelps, 6-1, 6-4, in a third-round match that was delayed until Sunday because of rain.

In another third-round match, third-seeded Miloslav Mecir of Czechoslovakia routed Dan Goldie, 6-2, 6-2, 6-3. Next, he plays Mikael Pernfors of Sweden, who defeated Robert Seguso, 6-2, 6-0, 6-4.