French Open : Becker, Edberg Advance to Semifinal Matchup

Once again in the French Open, it was Stefan Edberg’s day on clay, which is happening too often lately to be a mere coincidence.

Sweden is famous for producing clay-court players and Volvos, and it’s looking more and more as if there could be another Roland Garros champion rolling off the Swedish assembly line.

Actually, the Edberg model is a modified version of the typical Swedish sedan. He prefers the fast track.

But on a rainy afternoon, on the damp, slow clay of center court, Edberg overwhelmed Alberto Mancini of Argentina and advanced to a semifinal showdown with Boris Becker of West Germany.

Edberg’s 6-1, 6-3, 7-6 (7-5) victory Tuesday was only the latest example of his newfound confidence in playing the same surface on which countryman Mats Wilander won here last year.

Becker eliminated Jay Berger, 6-3, 6-4, 6-1, leaving Michael Chang as the lone remaining American in the men’s competition. Becker’s victory avenged a 6-1, 6-1 loss to Berger in March at Indian Wells, the worst defeat of the West German’s career.

The Edberg-Becker semifinal will be a rematch of last year’s Wimbledon final, which Edberg won in four sets.

After dispatching Mancini, a noted clay-court player, Edberg, is 13-1 on clay. But there were indications two weeks ago that Edberg is no pushover on slow surfaces. He beat Guillermo Perez-Roldan of Argentina in straight sets at Rome.

It was Perez-Roldan who knocked Edberg out of last year’s French Open with a straight-set victory.

“I believe you can serve and volley on this stuff,” he said of the clay courts. “(Yannick) Noah proved that in 1983 when he won (the French Open). With the game I have, I have to serve and volley, my own game, what I do best.”

In the women’s competition, two rain interruptions and 17-year-old Spaniard Conchita Martinez threw Steffi Graf slightly off her game. But as surely as the rain stopped and the sun came out, Graf won and reached the semifinals.

Had it not been for the rain, Graf’s 6-0, 6-4 victory would have seemed routine, although Martinez caused her a few anxious moments.

After pitching a 27-minute shutout in the first set, Graf got into trouble when showers halted play as she led, 3-2, in the second set.

Martinez was up, 40-0, at 4-4, but Graf forced deuce and won the game when Martinez made two straight errors.

Graf said she felt better about that match than the others.

“Sure you want to have longer rallies, an opponent who doesn’t give you so many easy shots,” she said. “OK, it shouldn’t have been that close, but I was much more into it.”

Her semifinal opponent will be Monica Seles, the 15-year-old Florida-based Yugoslav, who defeated sixth-seeded Manuela Maleeva of Bulgaria, 6-3, 7-5.

Said Seles: “I won’t say I won’t be scared playing Steffi because I will. She’s the best player in the game. I’ll have to play unbelievably well.”

Graf, 19, the oldest of the semifinalists, is looking forward to playing the younger Seles.

“It’s a new face and it’s a good thing for tennis,” Graf said. “We need it. It gets boring, week after week, if you always talk about Navratilova, Evert, Graf and Sabatini. This makes it more fun and interesting for everybody.”

In the other women’s semifinal, 17-year-old Mary Joe Fernandez of Miami will play 17-year-old Arantxa Sanchez of Spain. Fernandez, seeded 15th, defeated No. 10 Helen Kelesi of Canada, 6-2, 7-5. Sanchez, seeded seventh, beat No. 11 Jana Novotna of Czechoslovakia, 6-2, 6-2.

Fernandez will be making her first semifinal appearance in a Grand Slam event.

“Doing well this year will mean a lot to me in the future,” Fernandez said. “It hasn’t hit me yet. I’m just going to wait to let it sink it.”

After the first two sets of the Mancini-Edberg match, it was Mancini with that sinking feeling. The number that Edberg hung on him was something of a surprise, especially to Mancini.

“Six-one, 6-3 is not a normal score,” said Mancini, who expressed appreciation for Edberg’s play, especially his serve on clay.

“The bounce is very high,” Mancini said. “It is very difficult to return. And when you do hit the ball, he’s already at the net, so it’s then very difficult to pass him.”

Mancini’s only chance to get back into the match was in the third-set tiebreaker. As in the rest of the match, Edberg played aggressively, and Mancini stayed on the baseline.

Serving at 2-3, Mancini made two errors--a long forehand from the baseline and a wide backhand from the same spot.

Edberg double-faulted to 5-4, but Mancini missed a backhand passing shot. Mancini saved the first match point with a lob that Edberg couldn’t touch. Then Edberg closed it out when Mancini returned his second serve long.

After playing Davis Cup on clay and increasing his training to include long-distance running, Edberg said he feels as at home on clay as his Swedish contemporaries.

“I know you can’t play perfect,” Edberg said. “You’ll have a few bad bounces. You just have to accept that.

“The big difference is, I believe I can maintain a high level the whole tournament. It’s looking good this year.”