Tennis Roundup : Edberg, Becker Are Heading for Final at Queen’s Club

Top-seeded Stefan Edberg of Sweden and defending champion Boris Becker of West Germany stayed on course to meet in the final of the $385,000 Stella Artois tennis tournament at the Queen’s Club in London, a grasscourt event considered a tuneup for Wimbledon, but they took different routes Friday.

Edberg had a journey that he described as “heartbreaking” after needing 2 hours 18 minutes to beat 10th-seeded South African Christo van Rensburg, 7-5, 5-7, 6-4. Becker did not want to wait around under the ominous clouds, taking just over an hour to defeat his Davis Cup colleague, Eric Jelen, 7-5, 6-2.

Joining them in the semifinals were Frenchman Guy Forget and Australian Darren Cahill.

Forget, seeded No. 13, beat Brod Dyke of Australia, 7-6, 6-4, clinching the victory on his fifth match point. He will play Edberg today.

The unseeded Cahill, who ousted Wimbledon champion Pat Cash in the third round, upset another grasscourt player when he defeated ninth-seeded Kevin Curren, 7-5, 7-6.

Pam Shriver, seeded No. 1, had no problems advancing into the quarterfinals of the Dow women’s tournament at Birmingham, England, with a 6-3, 7-5 victory over Dinky van Rensburg of South Africa.

Second-seeded Claudia Kohde-Kilsch of West Germany quickly eliminated Camille Benjamin, 6-2, 6-0, and No. 3-seeded Zina Garrison ousted Britain’s Sara Gomer, 6-2, 6-3.

No. 4-seeded Lori McNeil had to rally from a set down and survive both poor serving and a warning about illegal coaching before closing out her 4-6, 6-2, 8-6 victory over Britain’s Jo Durie. McNeil double-faulted three times while serving for the match in the 14th game of the final set and was assessed a code violation by umpire Bill Lucas for allegedly taking coaching signals from an unidentified man in the stands during the third set.

“The guy wasn’t even my coach,” McNeil said. “He was just a spectator, clapping for some good tennis. It’s pretty awful when you get a warning for something you didn’t do. But I came through a tough match in the end, and that’s what counts.”

Top-seeded Kent Carlsson overcame a brief challenge by Italy’s Omar Camporese to join No. 3-seeded Martin Jaite in the semifinals of the $123,400 Bologna Open Grand Prix tournament at Bologna, Italy.

Carlsson, the defending champion, needed two hours to finally get past Camporese, 6-3, 7-5.

Jaite, the 1986 winner of the tournament, breezed past West German Ricki Osterthun, 6-2, 6-4.