TENNIS ROUNDUP : Seles Stops Shriver in Washington

Monica Seles, who said her hands were shaking, turned back a belated comeback bid by Pam Shriver to advance to the semifinals of the Virginia Slims of Washington Friday.

Seles won, 6-2, 7-6 (7-5), after holding a 5-2 lead in the second set. Shriver, who lives in nearby Landover, Md., fought off four match points and won four consecutive games to go ahead, 6-5. But Seles, seeded third, then held serve at love before winning the final three points of the tiebreaker.

“I was just chickening out,” said Seles, who never had played Shriver. “I couldn’t hit the ball, I was so scared. My hands were shaking.”

Today, Seles will Martina Navratilova, who defeated Anne Smith, 6-4, 6-2. Navratilova is 19-1 against Smith.

Other quarterfinal winners were Zina Garrison, who beat Nathalie Tauziat of Francis, 6-0, 7-6 (7-4), and Natalia Zvereva, who defeated Nicole Provis of Australia, 5-7, 6-3, 6-4.

Petr Korda won 11 of the last 12 points to defeat fourth-seeded Jay Berger, 7-6 (7-5), 6-1, in the U.S. Pro Indoor at Philadelphia. All of the top six seeded players have been eliminated.

Earlier, Pete Sampras defeated fifth-seeded Tim Mayotte for the third time this year, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3; Mark Kratzmann overcame sharp muscle pain to defeat eighth-seeded Jim Courier, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (9-7); and seventh-seeded Andres Gomez served 12 aces to stop Paul Haarhuis, 7-6 (7-3), 6-7 (3-7), 6-4.

It was the seventh victory in as many days for Kratzmann, who had to enter through a qualifying tournament. In the semifinals, Sampras will play Kratzmann.

Ivan Lendl, ranked No. 1 in the world, beat Patrick Kuenhen of West Germany, 6-3, 6-3, to reach the semifinals of the ATP Eurocard tournament at Stuttgart, West Germany. Boris Becker, seeded second, defeated Miloslav Mecir of Czechoslovakia, 6-4, 6-2.