TENNIS ROUNDUP : Connors Works Edberg While Losing in Three Sets

Stefan Edberg held off Jimmy Connors in three sets and Ivan Lendl rallied past Omar Camporese as the top two seeded players advanced to the semifinals of the Hamlet Challenge Cup on Friday at Commack, N.Y.

Connors, now 38 and ranked No. 195 in the world, made Edberg, ranked No. 2, work before losing, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4. Lendl rallied after losing the first two games for a 7-6 (7-5), 6-3 victory.

“I should have won in two sets,” Edberg said. “I had him 4-2 and had a chance to make it 5-2. But Jimmy found a way and I had to fight for it.”

In another quarterfinal at the Hamlet Golf and Country Club, qualifier Olivier Delaitre of Luxembourg beat Thierry Champion of France, 6-4, 6-4.

Fourth-seeded John McEnroe used pinpoint accuracy to overpower Luiz Mattar of Brazil, 6-3, 6-1.

“My serve worked. I put the ball where I wanted to,” said McEnroe, who won 10 of the last 12 games. “I went for placement over power.

“The big thing for me though is my concentration was working. Then my all-around picks up.”

With Edberg, Connors, Lendl and McEnroe all playing, it was the first time four former No. 1-ranked players took part in the quarterfinals of the same tournament.

Wimbledon champion Michael Stich routed Australia’s Todd Woodbridge, 6-4, 6-2, to advance to the men’s semifinals of the OTB International Tennis tournament at Schenectady, N.Y.

“It’s very difficult to stop somebody who is swinging away at everything and everything is going in,” Woodbridge said. “Any time he gets into trouble, he just starts hitting aces.”

In other semifinals, second-seeded Sergi Bruguera lost to fellow Spaniard Francisco Clavet, 6-1, 6-4; Austria’s Horst Skoff beat Andrei Cherkasov of the Soviet Union, 6-7 (10-8), 6-3, 7-6 (8-6), and Spain’s Emilio Sanchez beat Soviet Alexander Volkov, 6-1, 7-5.

Germany’s Anke Huber, the women’s top-seeded player, was upset, 6-3, 6-4, by France’s Alexia Dechaume in the quarterfinals. Huber, ranked 16th in the world, was frustrated by Dechaume’s deep, sliced returns, especially to Huber’s backhand.

Top-seeded Arantxa Sanchez Vicario of Spain advanced to the final of the Virginia Slims of Washington with a 6-0, 6-1 victory over Leila Meskhi of the Soviet Union.

Sanchez Vicario will face sixth-seeded Katerina Maleeva, who upset No. 3 Mary Joe Fernandez, 6-3, 6-4. It was the Bulgarian’s first victory over Fernandez since 1986.