TENNIS ROUNDUP : Lendl, Edberg Headed for a Showdown

Ivan Lendl fired 12 service aces in a victory over Scott Davis and Stefan Edberg struggled through a third-set tiebreaker to defeat Jakob Hlasek today to set up a semifinal confrontation between the two in the Seiko Super tennis tournament.

Second-seeded Boris Becker and unseeded Richey Reneberg will play in the other semifinal. Becker defeated Andrei Cherkasov, 6-4, 6-4, and Reneberg beat Thomas Hogstedt, 6-3, 6-2.

Edberg, the top seed, beat Hlasek, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (8-6), and Lendl, seeded third, defeated Davis, 7-6 (7-0), 6-2, on the artificial courts of the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium.

Edberg and Hlasek each broke serve once, Edberg in the seventh game of the first set and Hlasek in the second game of the second set. Edberg committed 69 unforced errors, hit only 58% of his first serves and had six double-faults.

“It was a very good match,” Edberg said. “Both of us played very well. I didn’t play my best but I thought I played well enough.”

Lendl broke Davis’ serve in the first game of the first set, but Davis broke back in the sixth game to set up the tiebreaker, which Lendl won, 7-0.

“I served very well today,” said Lendl, who was successful on 80% of his first serves. “I was broken because of the surface. Scott served into my backhands. It doesn’t matter how well I play, I still don’t like this fast surface.”

Top-seeded Steffi Graf defeated Nathalie Tauziat of France, 6-4, 6-1, today to reach the semifinals of the European Indoors tennis tournament at Zurich, Switzerland.

In Saturday’s semifinals, Graf will play third-seeded Manuela Maleeva, who easily beat unseeded Brenda Schultz of the Netherlands, 6-3, 6-2.

Gabriela Sabatini, the No. 2 seed, advanced with a 6-4, 7-5 victory over fifth-seeded Helena Sukova, and Jana Novotna of Czechoslovakia routed unseeded German Wiltrud Probst, 6-0, 6-1.

Andrei Chesnokov of the Soviet Union and Amos Mansdorf of Israel,, the top two seeds, breezed to semifinal victories in the Riklis Classic at Ramat Hasharon, Israel.

Chesnokov defeated Israel’s Gilad Bloom, 6-3, 6-3, and Mansdorf ousted American Jeff Tarengo, 6-1, 6-2, in a 53-minute romp.