Tennis Roundup : Wilander Outlasts Gomez to Reach Semifinals

Andres Gomez says he has no idea how to beat Mats Wilander.

“Don’t ask me,” Gomez said after a 6-0, 7-6 (7-3) loss to Wilander Friday in the quarterfinals of the Assn. of Tennis Professionals Championship at Mason, Ohio. “He’s so mentally tough, he’s difficult to beat. I don’t think people realize how much willpower he’s got in him.”

On the surface, it would appear that if anyone would know how to beat Wilander, ranked fourth in the world, it would be Gomez. The left-hander from Ecuador, seeded 12th in the tournament, handed Wilander his most recent singles defeat, a week ago in Boston, and the two played as a doubles team Thursday night.

But after a light rain delayed play for almost two hours at the Jack Nicklaus Sports Center, Wilander, seeded third, won the first nine games and was well on his way to the semifinals.

There he will meet second-seeded Stefan Edberg, who defeated fellow Swede Jonas Svensson, 6-4, 7-6 (7-3). Edberg, ranked third in the world, was trailing in the second set, 1-0, when the rains returned, halting play on all courts for more than three hours.

Delayed by the heavy rains were matches involving top-seeded Boris Becker against No.8-seeded Jaime Yzaga and No.4-seeded Michael Chang against No.5-seeded Brad Gilbert. Becker coasted to a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Yzaga, and Gilbert eliminated Chang, 3-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-3.

Betsy Nagelsen, at 32 the oldest player in the field, eliminated top-seeded Arantxa Sanchez Vicario in the completion of a suspended three-set second-round match, then came back to beat Anne Smith of Dallas and gain the semifinals of the Virginia Slims of Albuquerque tournament.

Nagelsen disposed of Sanchez, the 17-year-old French Open champion, with a 6-4 win in the third set. The two split the first two sets, 1-6, 6-4, before darkness halted play Thursday. Nagelsen, noticeably drained and catching breathers between serves, beat Smith, 7-6, 3-6, 6-4, in the quarterfinals.

Second-seeded Manuela Maleeva of Bulgaria also lost, self-destructing with a serve that produced 17 double faults while losing to 16-year-old amateur Amy Frazier of Rochester Hills, Mich., 6-3, 6-4.

Steffi Graf never gave Hana Mandlikova a chance in a 6-0, 6-1 quarterfinal victory during the United Jersey Bank tournament at Mahwah, N.J.

“Steffi was unbelievable, and there was not much I could do,” said Mandlikova, who lost to the world’s No. 1 player for the eighth time in nine matches. “She overpowered me.”

Top-seeded Ivan Lendl used a flawless third set to defeat Canadian Grant Connell, 7-6 (7-2), 4-6, 6-0, in the quarterfinals of the $900,000 Player’s International Canadian Open at Montreal.

John McEnroe, seeded second, downed Austria’s Alex Antonitsch, 7-5, 2-6, 6-3, and sixth-seeded Jay Berger beat unseeded Venezuelan Nicolas Pereira, 6-7 (7-2), 6-1, 6-3.

Lendl advanced to today’s semifinals against third-seeded Andre Agassi, who overwhelmed Canada’s Andrew Sznajder, 6-1, 6-0.

McEnroe and Berger will meet in the other semifinal. McEnroe beat Berger last Sunday in three sets to win the U.S. Hardcourt Championships in Indianapolis.