TENNIS ROUNDUP : Lendl, Agassi Reach Toronto Final

Ivan Lendl qualified for his eighth Player’s International final by scoring a 6-1, 6-2 victory over 10th-seeded Wally Masur Friday at Toronto.

Lendl will go for his seventh title against Andre Agassi today. The Wimbledon champion defeated MaliVai Washington, 2-6, 6-2, 6-1, in the other semifinal.

Masur reached the semifinals by beating top-seeded Petr Korda of Czechoslovakia on Thursday. But Lendl’s overpowering forehand and equally strong backhand were too much for the Australian.

“Wally is a good player, but he doesn’t have one or two weapons,” Lendl said. “I felt I hit the ball confidently and powerfully.”

After defeating Israel’s Amos Mansdorf in Thursday’s quarterfinal, Agassi said he wanted to meet Lendl “one last time” before Lendl retires.

For a time against Washington, it looked as if Agassi might not make it.

He served four double faults, was broken three times and had 14 unforced errors in losing the first set.

But it was a different story in the second set, with Washington giving up three service breaks after going ahead 2-0 on a break of his own.

“I don’t think I was tight,” said Washington, 21st in the world. “I felt loose the whole match. “Maybe too loose.”

Agassi’s game was firing on all cylinders in the third set. He won his first two service games at love and broke Washington in the fourth and sixth games to lead 5-1. He served another love game to win the match.

Second-seeded Pete Sampras defeated ninth-seeded Gabriel Markus of Argentina, 6-3, 7-6 (7-4), to advance to the semifinals at Kitzbuhel, Austria.

In another quarterfinal match, Austria’s Thomas Muster, seeded fourth, had to work hard for a 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 victory over Czechoslovakia’s Martin Strelba.

Sampras will meet Marcelo Filippini of Uruguay, who defeated fifth-seeded Emilio Sanchez of Spain, 3-6, 7-6 (8-6), 6-4. Muster will play seventh-seeded Alberto Mancini of Argentina, who ousted unseeded Diego Perez of Uruguay, 6-3, 6-4.

Wild-card entry Mikael Tillstrom of Sweden moved into the semifinals of the Dutch Open with another surprise victory, beating local favorite Mark Koevermans, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4, at Hilversum, Netherlands.

Tillstrom next faces second-seeded Jordi Arrese of Spain, who beat Bart Wuijts of Belgium, 6-7 (5-7), 6-3, 6-2.

Dropping the final three sets, the Strings saw their World TeamTennis losing streak grow to five matches after a 25-21 loss to the Tampa Bay Action at Tampa.

Jimmy Connors lost to Tampa Bay’s Mikael Pernfors, 6-4, giving the Action a 19-18 lead heading into the final set. Tampa Bay (4-4) clinched the match as Jill Hetherington and Tobias Svantesson won, 6-3, over Mary Lou Daniels and John Lloyd, with Connors replacing Lloyd after the eighth game.

The Strings (3-6) had built a 12-7 lead on a 6-2 doubles victory by Carrie Cunningham and Daniels over Hetherington and Kathy Rinaldi and Cunningham’s 6-5 (5-2) singles victory over Rinaldi.