TENNIS ROUNDUP : McEnroe, Lendl Will Meet on Grass

John McEnroe and Ivan Lendl will meet on grass for the first time in seven years as both reached the semifinals of the Stella Artois tournament in London on Friday.

Lendl, the No. 1 player in the world, breezed past David Pate, 6-2, 6-4, but McEnroe had more of a problem with Richard Fromberg, being blanked in the first-set tiebreaker before winning, 6-7, 6-3, 7-5.

Sweden’s Stefan Edberg, seeded second, and No. 3 Boris Becker of West Germany will play in the other semifinal. Edberg advanced after a 7-5, 6-3 victory over ninth-seeded Christo Van Rensburg from South Africa, and Becker cruised past American David Wheaton, 6-3, 6-3.

In 1983, McEnroe defeated Lendl at Wimbledon on the way to his second grass court championship. But the roles have been reversed for today’s match.

Lendl has spent two months playing on grass to prepare for Wimbledon. McEnroe hasn’t played for four months until this week.

“I’m the underdog on grass against Lendl,” said the fourth-seeded McEnroe. “If I don’t get in a high percentage of first serves, he will eat up my second serve.”

Lendl, who needed only 54 minutes to beat Pate, had six aces and two love service games.

“I felt fine out there, except for maybe one or two points, but you have to miss sometimes,” said Lendl, who has lost only 15 games in three matches.

Becker and Edberg will meet in a rematch of last year’s Wimbledon final, won by Becker.

“It’s a good match to test ourselves at this stage,” said Becker, a three-time Wimbledon champion.

“It just shows that all four players are in pretty good form, but concerning (Wimbledon), it is way too early to say.”

American Zina Garrison rolled to a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Belinda Cordwell of New Zealand in the quarterfinals of the Dow tournament at Birmingham, England.

Helena Sukova of Czechoslovakia, California-based South African Ros Fairbank and France’s Nathalie Tauziat will be the other three semifinalists.

Fairbank defeated Gigi Fernandez of Puerto Rico, 4-6, 6-2, 7-5; Tauziat ousted American Anne Smith, 6-1, 6-2, and Helena Sukova defeated Larisa Savchenko of the Soviet Union, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.

Top-seeded Guillermo Perez-Roldan of Argentina was upset by unseeded Magnus Larsson of Sweden, 7-5, 6-4, in the quarterfinals of the Florence (Italy) International tournament.

“I played rather badly at the beginning of the tournament, but every day I feel myself improving,” Larsson said.