Tennis Roundup : Potter Upsets Shriver and Reaches Final

Third-seeded Barbara Potter upset top-seeded Pam Shriver, 7-6, 7-6, Saturday in the semifinals of a $200,000 Virginia Slims tennis tournament at Newport, R.I.

In today’s final, Potter will face second-seeded Lori McNeil of Houston, a 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 winner over Ros Fairbank.

Potter won both tiebreakers by scores of 7-5 and beat Shriver for the first time since 1984.

“I’m just pleased,” Potter said. “I played so purposefully and so patiently.”

McNeil trailing, 5-3, won 10 of the last 13 games.

Marcelo Filippini of Uruguay overcame a slow start to defeat Paolo Cane of Italy, 2-6, 6-2, 6-4, and Francesco Cancellotti of Italy defeated Christian Bergstrom of Sweden, 6-4, 6-2, to reach the final of the $245,000 Swedish Open at Bastad, Sweden.

Fourth-seeded Arantxa Sanchez of Spain beat fifth-seeded Isabel Cueto of West Germany, 6-0, 6-4, and third-seeded Raffaella Reggi of Italy downed Angelicki Kanellopoulou of Greece, 6-2, 6-2, in the semifinals of the $175,000 Belgian Women’s Open at Brussels.

Sanchez and Reggi play in today’s final.

Top-seeded Helen Kelesi recovered from a sluggish start to break Carling Bassett Seguso four straight times in the first set and score a 6-3, 6-1 victory in the $60,000 Sun Life Nationals at Mississauga, Canada.