TENNIS ROUNDUP : McNeil Beats Fernandez in Semifinal

Lori McNeil upset second-seeded Mary Joe Fernandez, 7-6 (7-4), 6-0, Friday to reach the final of the grass-court tournament at Eastbourne, England.

McNeil will face the winner of the other semifinal between Linda Harvey-Wild and Rosalyn Fairbank-Nideffer, which was halted with Harvey-Wild leading, 2-1, in the first set with a break of serve.

Officials rescheduled the match for this morning with the winner facing McNeil in the afternoon.

The McNeil-Fernandez match was interrupted by light rain three times. “With the rain, the ball wasn’t bouncing very high and that made it more difficult for me,” Fernandez said. “I got cold from the stopping and starting.”

MaliVai Washington moved into the final of the grass-court tournament at Manchester, England, with a victory over Luis Herrera of Mexico, 6-7 (5-7), 6-1, 6-1.

Herrera used his speed and crisp volleying to take the first set in 53 minutes. But, Washington, seeded fifth, had winning streaks of six and five games to wrap up the match 58 minutes later.

Washington’s opponent in the final will be Jacco Eltingh of the Netherlands, who defeated Australia’s Wally Masur, 6-2, 7-6 (7-3).

Eltingh avenged a 6-3, 6-3, 6-1 defeat to Masur at the French Open to reach the first final of his career.

Andrei Medvedev of Ukraine fought off eight match points in the final set to defeat Jaime Oncins of Brazil, 1-6, 6-2, 7-6 (8-2), and advance to the semifinals of the men’s tournament at Genoa, Italy.