TENNIS ROUNDUP : Becker, Lendl Suffer Upset Losses

Boris Becker’s round-the-world chase after Ivan Lendl’s No. 1 ranking stalled Friday and he had nobody to blame but himself.

Becker, seeded second in the New South Wales Open in Sydney, Australia, seemed to look past fellow West German Carl-Uwe Steeb in the quarterfinals and lost, 7-6, 6-3.

The defeat cost Becker an opportunity to gain points in the ATP rankings and capitalize on Lendl’s 6-1, 6-4 upset loss later in the day to Yannick Noah.

Becker, the Wimbledon and U.S. Open champion, had hoped to beat Lendl in the finals before going after him in the Australian Open in the first Grand Slam event of 1990, which begins Monday and runs through Jan. 28.

Now, Lendl’s No. 1 ranking is safe even if he fails to defend his Australian title.

Defending champion Ramesh Krishnan of India upset third-seeded Swede Magnus Gustafsson, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2, to advance to the semifinals of the New Zealand Open championship in Auckland.

Today, Krishnan will play eighth-seeded American Scott Davis, a 6-2, 7-6 (7-0) winner over Steven Guy.

Also advancing to the semifinals were top seed Andrei Chesnokov of the Soviet Union and 1988 champion Amos Mansdorf of Israel. Chesnokov beat Canadian Grant Connell, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3; Mansdorf beat Jimmy Arias, 6-3, 7-6 (7-3).

John McEnroe struggled for nearly two hours before beating fellow American Jim Courier and advancing to the final of the Rio Challenge tournament at Adelaide, Australia.

McEnroe won, 6-2, 3-6, 6-2. He will play Stefan Edberg.

Stanford’s Jonathan Stark defeated UCLA’s Fritz Bissell, 6-7 (8-6), 6-4, 7-6 (7-1), and Aaron Stolpman of UC Irvine, 6-3, 7-6, to reach the quarterfinals at the 14th National Collegiate tournament at Shadow Mountain Resort in Palm Desert.

In the women’s division, Stanford’s Sandra Birch and UCLA’s Jessica Emmons each advanced to the quarterfinals.