TENNIS ROUNDUP : Wheaton Tops Sanchez in Hong Kong

American David Wheaton scored the first major upset in the Marlboro Tennis Championships today, defeating second-seeded Emilio Sanchez of Spain, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, in his final Yellow Group match.

The victory put Wheaton into the semifinals against Michael Chang.

Chang defeated South African Christo Van Rensburg, 6-3, 7-6 (7-3), to win the Gold Group without losing a set.

Also advancing to the semifinals were top-seeded Ivan Lendl and American Derrick Rostagno.

Rostagno defeated fourth-seeded Jay Berger, 6-3, 6-2, to win the Red Group.

Lendl advanced with a 6-3, 6-4 win over former Wimbledon finalist Kevin Curren.

Under the format for the week-long, 16-man tournament, the winner of each of the four groups advanced to the semifinals.

Top-seeded Gabriela Sabatini overcame a sluggish start to beat Helena Sukova of Czechoslovakia 6-2, 6-7 (7-3), 6-2 today and advanced to the semifinals of the Porsche Cup at Filderstadt, Germany.

Katerina Maleeva of Bulgaria joined Sabatini in the semis by beating another Czechoslovak, Jana Novotna, 7-6, 6-3.

Sabatini, the defending champion, came close to winning the match in the second set when she held two match points on Sukova’s serve in the 11th game. Sukova saved one, but her second serve appeared to go long on the second. The chair umpire, however, ruled the serve was good.

Sabatini protested in vain and Sukova went on to win the tiebreak.

The Argentine rallied in the third set, scoring breaks in the first and fifth game to wrap up the match.

At Antwerp, Belgium, top-seeded Stefan Edberg defeated Juan Aguilera, 6-4, 6-3, and Israel’s Amos Mansdorf came from behind to beat Jim Courier, 1-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7-3), today in the quarterfinals of the $1.1-million European Community Championship.

Horst Skoff of Austria defeated Sweden’s Lars Jonsson, 6-3, 6-4, to advance to the semifinals in the ATP CA Tennis Trophy in Vienna.

Austrian Thomas Muster, who failed to win a game in the first set, came back to defeat Andrei Olhovski of the Soviet Union, 0-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-5).