Tennis Roundup : Gilbert Upsets Top-Seeded Becker, Will Play Edberg

Brad Gilbert ended Boris Becker’s 12-match winning streak Saturday night with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory in the semifinals of the Assn. of Tennis Professionals championship at Mason, Ohio.

Gilbert, seeded fifth, rattled the top-seeded Becker with an assortment of passing shots from the baseline to extend his winning streak to 16 matches.

Gilbert will play Stefan Edberg in the final today. Edberg came from behind three times in the second-set tiebreaker to defeat defending champion Mats Wilander, 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (10-8).

Becker’s uneven performance allowed Gilbert to gain momentum in the second set and extend his mastery over the West German. Gilbert has won four of their five meetings.

Top-seeded Ivan Lendl and John McEnroe reached the final of the $900,000 Player’s International Canadian Open at Montreal with three-set victories.

Lendl, the defending champion, beat third-seeded Andre Agassi, 6-2, 3-6, 6-4, to run his record to 5-0 against the 19-year-old player from Las Vegas. McEnroe, seeded second, downed sixth-seeded Jay Berger, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Lendl rolled past Agassi in the first set, breaking service in the sixth and eighth games. But Agassi played better in the second set, taking a 4-0 lead and holding off a determined comeback to win.

McEnroe defeated Berger in the final of the U.S. Hardcourt Championships at Indianapolis last Sunday, recovering from a 4-1 third-set deficit to win--his third tournament victory this year.

This time, it was McEnroe who led, 4-1, in the third and then lost his serve. But he recovered to win again.

Lori McNeil, the only remaining seeded player, defeated Betsy Nagelsen, 6-3, 7-6 (7-3), to advance to the final of the Virginia Slims of Albuquerque tournament.

The fifth-seeded McNeil will play South Africa’s Elna Reinach today.

McNeil, who lost to Nagelsen in five of their previous six meetings, including three times this year, ended the losing string when she won the second-set tiebreaker.

Reinach defeated No. 6 Amy Frazier of Rochester Hills, Mich., 6-2, 6-2.

Rain forced the postponement of the semifinals of the United Jersey Bank tournament at Mahwah, N.J., and put defending champion Steffi Graf in a position to play four matches today.

Graf, the world’s top-ranked women’s player, will meet Linda Ferrando of Italy in a singles semifinal at 10 a.m. Andrea Temesvari of Hungary will meet Stacey Martin in the other semifinalmatch on another court. The winners will advance to the championship match later in the day.

Graf also is in the doubles semifinals today with Pam Shriver, and should the team win it would play in the final later in the day.