TENNIS ROUNDUP : Maleeva Beats Navratilova Again

Martina Navratilova joined the list of upset victims in Tokyo as fifth-seeded Manuela Maleeva-Fragniere knocked off the top-seeded player Friday to advance to the semifinals of the Nichirei International Ladies Championships.

Earlier in the week, Monica Seles and Jennifer Capriati were knocked out of the tournament.

Maleeva-Fragniere, ranked ninth in the world, beat Navratilova, 7-5, 4-6, 6-3. After losing her first seven matches against Navratilova, the Bulgarian-born Maleeva-Fragniere has rebounded with a two-match winning streak. She beat Navratilova in the U.S. Open.

“I played spotty,” Navratilova said. “I was good for two minutes, then bad for three minutes.”

Maleeva-Fragniere’s well-placed passing shots forced Navratilova to stay back on the baseline and deprived her of opportunities at the net.

“In the past three years I had hard training aimed at playing more aggressively and gaining physical strength,” Maleeva-Fragniere said. “I think it’s paid off now.”

In the other quarterfinal match, fourth-seeded Mary Joe Fernandez defeated seventh-seeded Helena Sukova of Czechoslovakia, 6-3, 6-4.

Maleeva-Fragniere faces Fernandez and third-seeded Katerina Maleeva, Maleeva-Fragniere’s younger sister, plays eighth-seeded Amy Frazier in the semifinals today.

John McEnroe advanced to the semifinals of the Swiss Indoor tournament at Basel with a 6-3, 7-5 victory over Andrei Cherkasov of the Soviet Union.

The third-seeded McEnroe has not lost a set in the tournament.

Currently ranked 11th in the world and seeking his 76th singles title, McEnroe will face Scott Melville of San Marino in the semifinals.

Melville, ranked 322nd, defeated Yannick Noah of France, 7-6 (9-7), 6-7 (7-5), 6-4, with a combination of strong serves and clever passing shots on the fast indoor court.

For Melville, 24, his success was a dream come true.

“I want to play McEnroe just because he is McEnroe,” he said. “For a lot of Americans, he’s our idol.”

Top-seeded Brad Gilbert and Aaron Krickstein advanced today to the semifinals of the Queensland Open at Brisbane, Australia.

Gilbert defeated Carl Limberger of Australia, 6-2, 6-4, and second-seeded Krickstein beat eighth-seeded Eric Jelen of West Germany, 6-2, 6-1.

West German Anke Huber, ranked 61st in the world, upset top-seeded Zina Garrison of the United States, 7-5, 6-3, and advanced to the semifinals at Bayonne, France.

Second-seeded Arantxa Sanchez Vicario of Spain overcame Andrea Strnadova of Czechoslovakia, 6-7 (7-5), 6-2, 6-1, in a quarterfinal match at Leipzig, East Germany.