TENNIS ROUNDUP : Sabatini Gives Seles the Boot in Italy

Gabriela Sabatini is at home in Rome.

Sabatini defeated top-ranked Monica Seles in the final for the second consecutive year to win the Italian Open, 7-5, 6-4, in 1 hour 50 minutes before 10,000 fans at Foro Italico.

“I always play well here in Rome,” Sabatini said. “The crowd always helps. I’m feeling stronger than I ever felt.”

It was the fourth Italian Open title for the 21-year-old Sabatini, from Argentina, who has won five of her nine tournaments this year.

Seles raced to a 5-2 lead in the first set, but Sabatini fought off three set points before winning the last five games of the set.

The pace slowed in the second set, but Sabatini picked up the pressure by going to net and scoring repeatedly with volleys hit out of Seles’ reach.

“The match was close, but Gaby just played better on the close points,” Seles said. “I stopped playing my game and turned defensive. I couldn’t cash in when leading.”

Seles, 18, won five of her six previous tournaments this year.

The men’s Italian Open begins today. Top-ranked Jim Courier drew a tough first-round opponent, clay court specialist Thomas Muster of Austria.

Top-seeded Stefan Edberg of Sweden and Michael Stich of Germany advanced to today’s final of the ATP German Open at Hamburg.

Edberg rallied to beat unseeded Carlos Costa of Spain, 7-5, 7-6 (9-7), and Stich trounced Boris Becker of Germany, 6-1, 6-1, in the semifinals.

Before facing Stich, Becker had to finish off defending champion Karel Novacek, defeating the Czechoslovak, 6-1, 7-6 (8-6), in the continuation of a quarterfinal match which was postponed by rain Saturday.

The final, which would have been held Sunday, was rescheduled for this morning because of rain that set the tournament back a day. Tournament officials reduced the match to best-of-three instead of best-of-five.

If Stich wins, he will be the first German to win the tournament since Wilhelm Bungert in 1964.

Stich, playing in his hometown, barely missed a return, passing a sluggish, poorly serving Becker repeatedly to take the first set in 40 minutes and the match in 1 hour 14 minutes.

MaliVai Washington completed a three-year climb to the top by winning the U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championships with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Claudio Mezzadri of Switzerland at Charlotte, N.C.

Earlier in the day, Washington defeated Jeff Tarango of Manhattan Beach, 6-4, 6-4, in a semifinal match, and Mezzadri beat Luiz Mattar of Brazil, 6-3, 3-6, 7-5.

Washington and Mezzadri also played twice Saturday, the result of three consecutive days of rain that compressed the tournament schedule into two frantic days of action.

Washington, who lost in the semifinals in the last two tournaments, won every set in winning here.