TENNIS ROUNDUP : Navratilova Upset in Straight Sets

Top-seeded Martina Navratilova was upset by Nathalie Tauziat of France, 6-1, 6-4, Friday in the quarterfinals of the WTA Open at Barcelona, Spain.

Earlier in the day, Navratilova, ranked fourth in the world, had won the completion of a rain-interrupted match, defeating Katia Piccolini of Italy, 6-0, 6-2.

No. 2-seeded Arantxa Sanchez Vicario of Spain, the two-time defending champion, breezed past No. 6 Judith Wiesner of Austria, 6-0, 6-2.

Today, she will play third-seeded Manuel Maleeva-Fragniere, a 6-3, 7-5 winner over Emmanuela Zardo of Italy.

Tauziat will face fourth-seeded Conchita Martinez of Spain, a 1-6, 6-4, 6-4 winner over Julie Halard of France.

Boris Becker, playing like a clay-court specialist, defeated defending champion Andrei Chesnokov, 6-1, 6-3, in a quarterfinal of the $1-million Monte Carlo Open.

“It was one of my best matches on clay against a strong opponent,” Becker said. “I played well from the first to the last point.”

He will next play Yugoslavia’s Goran Prpic, who eliminated Carl-Uwe Steeb, 6-4, 6-2.

Becker made the most of playing short balls to bring Chesnokov in and then either passing the Soviet at the net or forcing errors.

In nine minutes, Becker had a 3-0 lead over Chesnokov. It was 6-1 at the end of 30 minutes.

Chesnokov appeared to be anxious, rushing the net and making bad volleys or overplaying smashes. Becker, meanwhile, stayed near the baseline and came in only following his serve, letting Chesnokov make the mistakes.

“If he plays like that in Paris he can win the French Open,” Chesnokov said. “He really seems to have mastered clay-court play.”

Prpic eliminated Steeb in a match delayed nearly two hours because of morning showers. Prpic was able to handle the cold and windy conditions better.

After winning the first set, Prpic dropped behind, 0-2, in the second before closing out the match.

The other semifinal will feature Horst Skoff of Austria against Sergi Bruguera of Spain.

Skoff defeated Jonas Svensson of Sweden, 6-3, 6-3.

Bruguera had the toughest match of the day against Sweden’s Magnus Gustafsson, but he showed why he won the Portuguese Open with a cool 7-5, 7-5 victory.

“I often need to be down to play my best shots,” he said. “So I was not worried today when I was losing 4-5 in the second set. I knew I could come back and win the match.”

In past semifinals, Skoff has lost to American Jimmy Arias in 1987 and Becker in 1989.