TENNIS ROUNDUP : Becker Beats Edberg, Gets Courier Next

Third-seeded Boris Becker of Germany defeated top-seeded Stefan Edberg of Sweden, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2, Saturday in the semifinals of the Donnay Indoor Championship at Brussels, Belgium.

Becker’s victory spoiled an anticipated match between Edberg and Jim Courier, the top two players in the world, in today’s final. Courier beat fifth-seeded Guy Forget of France, 7-6, (9-7), 6-4.

The victory assured Courier of retaining the No. 1 ranking he took from Edberg last week. Edberg could have regained the top spot by beating Courier in the final.

Edberg broke Becker’s serve in the ninth game of the first set and held serve to take the set.

Becker bounced back to take the second set and overpowered the Swede with his powerful serve in the final set after breaking Edberg’s serve in the fifth game.

Courier rallied to win the first set after Forget wasted two set points in the tiebreaker. Courier broke Forget’s serve in the third game of the second set and never faltered on his own serve.

MaliVai Washington moved within a step of his first pro title and ended Jimmy Connors’ run in the $780,000 Federal Express International with a 6-2, 7-5 victory at Memphis, Tenn.

Washington will play Wayne Ferreira of South Africa, who defeated unseeded Amos Mansdorf of Israel, 6-2, 6-3, in 56 minutes.

Martina Navratilova moved to within one victory of setting a record for singles titles by defeating Lori McNeil, 1-6, 6-4, 6-4, in the semifinals of the $350,000 Virginia Slims of Chicago tournament.

Navratilova will face third-seeded Jana Novotna of Czechoslovakia, who rallied from a disastrous first set to upset top-seeded Steffi Graf of Germany, 0-6, 6-3, 7-5.

Navratilova shares the record of 157 singles titles with Chris Evert.