TENNIS ROUNDUP : Ferreira Sweeps Sampras; Connors Advances

Continuing a string of upsets, seventh-seeded Wayne Ferreira defeated No. 2 Pete Sampras, 6-4, 6-2, Friday night in the $780,000 Federal Express International at Memphis, Tenn.

“I’ve been beaten before, but this was a pretty good beating,” said Sampras, who says he’s still hindered by a shoulder injury that kept him from playing in the Australian Open. “Wayne contained me in the back court. I was working much harder on my service games than he was.”

Earlier, Jimmy Connors eliminated 10th-seeded Aaron Krickstein, 3-6, 6-2, 6-3. Connors next plays MaliVai Washington, who defeated Michiel Schapers of the Netherlands, 6-3, 7-5.

Said Connors: “My goal is to play U.S. Open-type tennis every time I step out there and that’s exactly what I’ve done.”

Jimmy Connors had drawn criticism Thursday night after beating Michael Stich, 5-7, 7-6 (7-5), 7-5.

“He went over a fine line and he was being very unfair on the court,” said Stich, who said that Connors was continually allowed to talk to the crowd at crucial times.

“He talks to the crowd between your first and second serves and he talks to the crowd as you are preparing for your serve. If that’s his idea of winning. . . . I think it’s ridiculous what he’s doing.”

The other semifinal will match Ferreira against unseeded Amos Mansdorf, who beat No. 13 Paul Haarhuis, 7-6, (7-5), 6-3.

“It’s (the Australian Open) done a lot,” said Ferreira, a semifinalist at Melbourne. “Every match I play I know I can win. It’s a big step from last year when I’d go out and hope to win.”

Jim Courier, Stefan Edberg, Boris Becker and Guy Forget won quarterfinal matches at the Donnay indoor tournament in Brussels, Belgium.

Courier, the world’s top-ranked player and seeded second here, scored a 7-6 (8-6), 7-6 (7-5) victory over Alexander Volkov of the Commonwealth of Independent States. Edberg, seeded first, beat Czechoslovakia’s Karel Novacek, 6-2, 6-1, to advance to a semifinal match with Becker.

Becker, seeded No. 3, defeated fellow German Carl-Uwe Steeb, 6-3, 7-6 (7-3). Forget beat Ivan Lendl, 6-2, 7-6 (7-4), and will play Courier in the semifinals today.

Third-seeded Jana Novotna beat seventh-seeded Amy Frazier, 7-6 (7-5), 6-1 in the quarterfinals of the Virginia Slims of Chicago.

Novotna will play Steffi Graf in the semifinals today.

Novotna was down, 5-3, in the tiebreaker but won the next four points, finishing off Frazier with an ace and passing shot to take the first set.

Frazier had her problems in the match, serving eight double faults.

In a late match, Lori McNeil swept Zina Garrison with an accurate serve and outstanding net play, 6-1, 6-3.

McNeil will next play Martina Navratilova.

Said Garrison of McNeil: “She could beat Martina if she plays the way she did (Friday). I don’t think she missed two balls in a row. Some balls, she didn’t even see--she just flagged at them and they went over.”

France’s Pascale Paradis-Magnon beat sixth-seeded Catarina Lindqvist of Sweden, 6-4, 6-0, in the quarterfinals of the WTA tournament in Linz, Austria.

Third-seeded Mary Pierce, a 17-year-old American playing out of France, was beaten by Yevgeniya Manyokova of Russia, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3.