TENNIS ROUNDUP : Unseeded Ondruska Faces Agassi in Final

Unseeded South African Marcos Ondruska continued his streak of upsets Saturday, beating eighth-seeded Andrei Chesnokov, 6-4, 7-5, to advance to the finals of the Purex Tennis Championships at Scottsdale, Ariz.

Ondruska, who has yet to lose a serve while knocking out three seeded players during the week, today will face second-seeded Andre Agassi, who rolled over Australian Mark Woodforde, 6-2, 6-3.

Chesnokov used service breaks to take a 3-1 lead in each set. But the 20-year-old Ondruska won all the big points late to rally each time--ending the match with back-to-back service breaks to reach a final for only the second time in his career.

“I started off a little shaky, but after I won my first game I was OK,” said Ondruska, who earlier upset Francisco Clavet, David Wheaton and Brad Gilbert. “It’s been like a dream week for me and getting to a final here means a lot to me.”

Chesnokov said he was happy to reach the semifinals, but he ran into a player on a roll.

“I missed some shots and he made everyone he tried,” Chesnokov said. “Every game, he got better and better and he has a lot of patience. He’s been too good this week.”

Ondruska began the season with three consecutive first-round losses before reaching the semifinals at San Francisco, where he lost to Agassi, 6-0, 6-4.

Hard-serving Czech Karel Novacek defeated Diego Nargiso of Italy, 6-3, 6-4, to reach the final of the indoor tournament at Rotterdam, Netherlands. Novacek, ranked 16th in the world, will be aiming for his fourth singles title in today’s final against Anders Jarryd of Sweden. Jarryd, ranked 156th, defeated Russia’s Alexander Volkov, 6-3, 6-7 (6-8), 6-3, in the other semifinal. . . . Top-seeded Conchita Martinez of Spain and second-seeded Manuela Maleeva-Fragniere of Switzerland advanced to the final of the women’s tournament at Linz, Austria. Martinez, shaking off a cold, defeated fourth-seeded Leila Meskhi, 6-2, 6-2. Maleeva-Fragniere downed Judith Wiesner of Austria, 6-2, 6-0. . . . Spaniard Carlos Costa defeated Francisco Montana, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, and will meet Austrian Thomas Muster in the final of the Mexican Open at Mexico City. Muster advanced with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Mexican Oliver Fernandez.