Muster Tops Ivanisevic; Gomez Beats Champion : Tennis: The semifinal matches are established. Four players will meet Friday--and none has ever won a Grand Slam event.

Thomas Muster shook off a self-inflicted crack on the shin and Andres Gomez silenced an ailing local qualifier and his hometown fans to complete the men’s semifinal matchup at the French Open today.

Muster, the seventh seed from Austria, beat Goran Ivanisevic of Yugoslavia 6-2, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2, before Gomez, the fourth seed from Ecuador, defeated Thierry Champion 6-3, 6-3, 6-4.

They meet for a berth in the final Friday, when American Andre Agassi, the third seed, goes against unseeded Jonas Svensson of Sweden. None of the final four has ever won a Grand Slam event.

Muster beat Gomez in the Italian Open semifinals three weeks ago, on his way to winning that clay-court event.

Muster slammed his shin with the racket so hard on one second-set shot that he started bleeding and was afraid more extensive damage might have been done.

“It hurt pretty bad,” Muster said. But it was not enough to affect the outcome of this quarterfinal against the unseeded Yugoslav, who eliminated Boris Becker in the first round.

In reaching his second Grand Slam semifinal, Muster stayed on the baseline and blasted shots at Ivanisevic, who attacked with volleys and dropshots.

It was an effective strategy in the second set, when the Yugoslav came back in the late games and closed with an ace.

But it was too little against Muster, who has recovered from a severe knee injury suffered when he was hit by a drunk driver in Florida last year to become recognized as one of the world’s top players.

Muster won the last four games to close the first set, blasted a forehand so hard that Ivanisevic couldn’t handle it at the net to finish the second and flipped a forehand topspin lob over his charging opponent for match point.

“It is very hard to play against players like Goran,” Muster said. “You get tired and start to lose concentration. But I made some important shots at the end.”

Gomez, ranked seventh in the world and the owner of one of the best clay-court games around, was just too much for Champion, the first qualifier to reach the French Open quarterfinals since the open era of tennis began in 1968.

It took just 1 hour, 38 minutes for Gomez to reach his first Grand Slam semifinal. The 30-year-old, the oldest by far of the four semifinalists, said it had been a long time coming.

“I’ve waited 20 years for this moment to come,” Gomez said. Helped by the first-round elimination of second-seeded Becker and a fourth-round walkover against injured Magnus Gustafsson, the 14th seed, Gomez has reached the semis without playing a single seed.

“I had a bit of luck in the draw,” he said. “And even if I don’t believe in luck, sometimes you want some.”

Gomez broke Champion’s service in the first game and never was troubled. He allowed just one break himself, for 4-3 in the final set, but won three of the last four games to close it on Champion’s long service return.

Champion, who played eight matches in the last two weeks, said he felt ill throughout the match. He also was bothered by a groin strain suffered while beating Karel Novacek in the fourth round.