Tennis Roundup : Gilbert Beats Mayotte, Faces Mansdorf

Brad Gilbert and Amos Mansdorf advanced to the final of the world’s richest indoor tennis tournament with semifinal victories Saturday in the $1.1-million Paris Open.

Gilbert, ranked 23rd in the world, reversed last year’s defeat at the Paris Open by beating second-seeded Tim Mayotte, 7-5, 6-3. Mayotte was the only remaining seeded player in the event, in which $262,000 goes to today’s winner.

In the other semifinal, Israel’s Amos Mansdorf defeated Switzerland’s Jakob Hlasek, ranked 25th in the world, 7-6, 7-6.

Mayotte had beaten Gilbert all five times they had met, including their semifinal at the Olympics.

This time, Gilbert dominated. Mayotte, usually a good server and ranked No. 8 in the world, was broken 5 of the 11 times he served and had 5 double faults.

Mansdorf won a see-saw tiebreaker in the first set of the semifinal against Hlasek. Mansdorf went out to a 6-3 lead, but Hlasek took the next 4 points in a row to reach set point at 7-6.

Mansdorf held off that one and another set point before taking three points in a row to win the tiebreaker, 10-8. The pair went to another tiebreaker in the second set.

Pam Shriver’s hopes of a revenge match with Steffi Graf were dashed by a stomach virus when she withdrew during the semifinals of the $250,000 Midland Group championships at Brighton, England.

After the top-seeded Graf had struggled to beat Lori McNeil, 6-2, 5-7, 6-4, in the first semifinal, Shriver was forced to retire when she was trailing, 6-7, 1-2, to Bulgarian Manuela Maleeva.

Top seed Zina Garrison defeated Louise Allen 6-3, 6-4, to advance to the final of the $100,000 Virginia Slims tournament at Indianapolis.

Garrison will play second-seeded Katerina Maleeva of Bulgaria, who lost just two games in beating No. 3 Stephanie Rehe, 6-2, 6-0.