Lendl, Becker Reach Semis at the ATP : Tennis: Thigh injury doesn’t slow German’s quest for the No. 1 ranking. Gomez and Muster fall by the wayside.

Boris Becker, chasing his dream of the world No. 1 ranking, and Ivan Lendl reached the semifinals of the ATP World Championships today.

Becker showed no signs of the thigh injury which sidelined him last week as he overcame a determined Thomas Muster, 7-5, 6-4.

The mathematics of the round-robin competition meant that Becker’s win also guaranteed Ivan Lendl, who earlier beat French Open champion Andres Gomez for his second win of the tournament, a place in the semifinals.

If Muster had beaten Becker, Lendl would have needed to wait for the outcome of the final group matches Friday to know his fate.

By his own admission, Ecuador’s Gomez served so badly that he virtually gave away the swift 6-4, 6-1 victory to Lendl.

Muster, who lost to Lendl on Tuesday, saved four match points before succumbing to world No. 2 Becker.

The Austrian suddenly found himself serving at 5-1 down and 15-40 in the second set.

His serve got him back to deuce, and though Becker earned two more match points, the German’s own mistakes gave Muster a breather.

Muster’s escape unsettled Becker, who lost the next 10 points in succession, dropping his own serve to love and only getting back into the game when Muster double-faulted.

When Becker got to his fifth match point, in the 10th game, he was determined not to give Muster another chance to get off the hook, and a fierce smash clinched the victory.

“It is not my surface,” Muster said of the fast carpet laid in Frankfurt’s Festhalle. “In the second set I lost control.”

The sixth-seeded Gomez’s second defeat in two days snuffed out his hopes of reaching the semifinals.

“My serving was crucial,” said Gomez who, like Muster, prefers a slower court. “I made five double faults and I felt tired on my serve.”

Gomez opened well by breaking Lendl in the second game. But that startled Lendl into action.

Lendl, who surrendered the world’s top ranking in August and is now third, soon took a 5-1 lead in the second set.