Canadians Move to World Doubles Semifinals

Fourth-seeded Grant Connell and Glenn Michibata of Canada upset top-seeded Pieter Aldrich and Danie Visser of South Africa, 6-2, 7-6 (7-4), today to advance to the semifinals of the World Doubles tennis championship.

Connell and Michibata clinched a spot in the final four of the $1-million tournament with a 2-1 round-robin record.

“If you’d told me we’d win our next two matches after losing our opener, I’d have had trouble believing it,” Connell said. “It really jelled for us today. We played as well as we have for maybe three or four months.”

Connell and Michibata will play Emilio Sanchez and Sergio Casal of Spain in Saturday’s best-of-five sets semifinal.

South Africans Gary Muller and Neil Broad beat Wimbledon champions Rick Leach and Jim Pugh in three sets, but both teams ended with 1-2 records and were eliminated.

The loss was the second straight for Leach and Pugh, Southern Californians who are members of the U.S. Davis Cup team that faces Australia in the final in St. Petersburg, Fla., next week.

Sanchez and Casal beat previously unbeaten Scott Davis and David Pate of the United States.

The Spaniards saved two set points in the 10th game of the second set and rallied to take the match, 6-3, 7-6 (7-4).

Davis and Pate, seeded second, advanced to the semifinals despite the loss with a 2-1 round-robin record.

They will play the winners of the other group, France’s Guy Forget and Switzerland’s Jakob Hlasek.

Forget and Hlasek improved their record to 3-0 with a 6-2, 7-6 (7-4) victory over winless Australians Darren Cahill and Mark Kratzmann.

Each team played three round-robin matches with the top two finishers from each group advancing to the semifinals.