Tennis Roundup : Agassi, Leconte to Meet in Semifinals

Andre Agassi advanced to the semifinals of the $350,000 Nabisco Grand Prix tennis tournament by defeating Sweden’s Jonas Svensson, 7-5, 6-1, Friday at Stuttgart, West Germany.

“He had bad luck, but then again I played pretty strong,” the 18-year-old American said.

The second-seeded Agassi played a good strategic match, mixing stop volleys, lobs and fierce groundstrokes.

In the semifinals, Agassi will play sixth-seeded Henri Leconte of France, who defeated Haiti’s Ronald Agenor, 6-3, 6-4, in 76 minutes.

Guillermo Perez-Roldan, a clay-court specialist from Buenos Aires, defeated Thomas Muster of Austria, 6-2, 7-5. Andres Gomez defeated fourth-seeded Yannick Noah of France, 6-3, 6-3.

Marcelo Filippini of Uruguay upset top-seeded Joakim Nystrom of Sweden, 6-2, 6-3, to reach the semifinals of the Swedish Open.

Also advancing were Italians Paolo Cane and Francesco Cancellotti, and Christian Bergstrom of Sweden. Filippini, No. 7, was the only seeded player to reach the final four.

Second-seeded Lori McNeil survived triple-match point to defeat Ann Henricksson, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3, and advance to the semifinals of the Virginia Slims tournament at Newport, R.I.

McNeil trailed, 3-5, love-40, on her serve in the second set. She won the next five points and then broke Henricksson’s serve.

In other quarterfinals, top-seeded Pam Shriver used her serve-and-volley game to dispatch Wendy White, 6-4, 6-4; No. 3 Barbara Potter eliminated fifth-seeded Robin White, 6-3, 6-3, and No. 4 Ros Fairbank defeated Lea Antonoplis, 6-1, 6-2.

At Brussels, Isabel Cueto of West Germany upset top-seeded Zina Garrison, 6-4, 7-5, to reach the semifinals of the $75,000 Belgian women’s tennis championships as persistent rain and wind chased the tournament indoors.

Aranxta Sanchez, seeded fourth, was a 6-2, 6-2 winner over Argentina’s Mercedes Paz, seeded eighth. Sanchez has yet to lose a set in the weeklong event.

At the Forum Thursday night, Elna Reinach, Eddie Edwards and Tim Wilkison led the defending champion Charlotte Heat to a 30-15 TeamTennis victory over the Los Angeles Strings.

Edwards and Wilkison started the five-set Charlotte sweep with a 6-3 win over John Lloyd and Leif Shiras.

Reinach beat Elise Burgin, 6-4, in women’s singles, then teamed with her sister, Monica, to beat Burgin and Penny Barg, 6-5. In men’s singles, Wilkison downed Shiras, 6-2. Edwards and Elna Reinach defeated Lloyd and Barg in the mixed doubles finale.

The Heat is 5-0, the Strings 2-3.