TENNIS ROUNDUP : Ivanisevic Uses 27 Aces to Beat Agassi

Yugoslavia’s Goran Ivanisevic used a career-high 27 aces Friday to beat Andre Agassi, 7-5, 7-6 (7-3), in the quarterfinals of the Australian Indoor championships at Sydney.

Ivanisevic was cheered by hundreds of fans chanting and waving Croatian flags as he saved two set points in the second set and staved off eight break points.

“Suddenly I’ve found my best tennis,” said Ivanisevic, whose previous record for aces was 22 against Boris Becker in last year’s French Open. “It was unbelievable tonight. I was hitting the ball as hard as I could.”

Ivanisevic will play top-seeded Stefan Edberg of Sweden today. Edberg beat Michael Chang, 6-4, 7-5. The other semifinal will match third-seeded Pete Sampras against ninth-seeded Brad Gilbert.

Richard Krajicek of the Netherlands eliminated John McEnroe, 6-4, 6-4, in the quarterfinals of a $300,000 tournament at Toulouse, France.

Second-seeded Martina Navratilova gained a record-tying 1,309th tournament match victory by sweeping Sabine Appelmans of Belgium, 6-2, 6-3, in the quarterfinals of an indoor event at Milan, Italy.

“I have been playing so many years that a record of match wins is not really important. The tournaments record is more significant, and (it) would be nice to set it,” Navratilova said after matching Chris Evert’s record.

Navratilova can equal a record of 157 tournament victories, also held by Evert, by winning Sunday’s final.

Steffi Graf said she will play in today’s semifinals at Leipzig, Germany. She returned to the $225,000 tournament after flying to Heidelberg for treatment of a wrist injury.