Tennis Roundup : Becker Beats Cahill, Faces Edberg in Final

Boris Becker and Stefan Edberg, two of the favorites for Wimbledon, advanced Saturday to the final round of the $385,000 Stella Artois tournament at the Queen’s Club in London.

Becker, seeded fourth, ended the giant-killing feats of Australia’s Darren Cahill with a 6-2, 6-4 victory. Edberg, the top-seeded player, beat 13th-seeded Guy Forget of France, 7-6, 6-1, in the other semifinal.

Cahill, ranked 66th in the world, eliminated reigning Wimbledon champion Pat Cash and another strong grass-court player, Kevin Curren, in previous rounds.

The Stella Artois tournament is a tuneup for Wimbledon, which begins June 27.

At Birmingham, England, Pam Shriver braved bitter cold to move into the final of the Dow women’s tournament as rainouts earlier in the week forced players to shiver through two matches in one day.

In raw conditions that she described as “horrible, the worst ever,” the top-seeded player and four-time defending champion moved into today’s final with a 6-1, 4-6, 6-3 victory over third-seeded Lori McNeil.

Shriver will face second-seeded Claudia Kohde-Kilsch of West Germany, who defeated No. 4 Zina Garrison, 6-2, 6-4.

Earlier in the day, Shriver beat Ros Fairbank of South Africa in the quarterfinals, 6-2, 6-1. Rain washed out Wednesday’s play and forced both the quarterfinals and semifinals to be held Saturday.

At Edinburgh, Scotland, Gigi Fernandez, a last-minute recruit for the event, defeated Australia’s Wendy Turnbull, 6-2, 6-2, to win the women’s title in the Bank of Scotland Grass Courts tournament.

Fernandez, from Puerto Rico, used a strong service game to beat the 35-year-old Australian and win the $18,000 first prize.

A first-round loser at the Dow grass-court tournament in Birmingham, England, on Tuesday, Fernandez started play in Edinburgh Wednesday and was helped to the final when top-seeded Hana Mandlikova withdrew because of a stomach virus.

At Bologna, Italy, Emilio Sanchez of Spain and Alberto Mancini of Argentina reached the singles final of the Bologna tournament when Sanchez breezed by Martin Jaite of Argentina, 6-3, 6-1, and top-seeded Kent Carlsson of Sweden, complaining of an inflamed Achilles tendon, bowed out.

Carlsson was scheduled to play Mancini in a late evening match. But instead he came out on the clay courts and announced his withdrawal.

In Davis Cup play, the Soviet Union and Austria advanced to their respective finals in the European-African Zone A.

Alexander Volkov and Andrei Olkhovsky won the doubles to give the Soviet Union an insurmountable 3-0 lead in their best-of-five-match competition against Portugal at Lisbon. Volkov and Olkhovsky defeated Nuno Marques and Joao Cunha de Silva, 3-6, 6-3, 16-14, 3-6, 2-6.

Austria also took an unbeatable 3-0 lead by winning the doubles against Nigeria at Villach, Austria.