TENNIS ROUNDUP : UCLA’s Sanguinetti Finally Loses

Davide Sanguinetti’s string of upsets at the NCAA tennis championships at Athens, Ga., came to an end Saturday, but just barely.

The unseeded UCLA sophomore from Italy lost to fourth-seeded Wade McGuire of Georgia, 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (7-5), in a semifinal match, and later he said it felt as though he pulled a muscle or got a cramp on the biggest point of the match.

Sanguinetti clutched his leg after a double fault in the tiebreaker gave McGuire a 5-3 lead. Before that, both players remained on serve throughout the set.

Sanguinetti held serve on the next point to make it 5-4, and then it was McGuire’s turn to serve. He won the point and had the opportunity to clinch the match, but double faulted.

But Sanguinetti could not take advantage of the opening on his serve, returning McGuire’s backhand into the net, and it was over.

“I had my chances,” said Sanguinetti, who had scored the tournament’s first big upset when he ousted second-seeded Daniel Courcol of Mississippi State, 6-4, 6-2, in a second-round match Thursday. “I usually win the third set. Today I lost. Too bad.”

After winning the first set, McGuire broke Sanguinetti’s serve in the seventh game of the second set to take a 4-3 lead. Sanguinetti then broke McGuire in the next game and the 12th to force a third set.

“I knew it was going to be a tough match,” McGuire said. “He’s a great counter-puncher. He doesn’t give you any points and makes you earn everything.”

In today’s final, McGuire will face top-seeded Chris Woodruff of Tennessee, a 6-2, 5-7, 6-3 winner over Tamer El Sawy of Louisiana State in the other semifinal.

Both of the remaining doubles teams from Southern California universities lost in the quarterfinals. Wayne Black and Kent Seton of USC were eliminated by David Blair and Mark Merklein of Florida, 6-3, 7-5, and Cary Lothringer and Ari Nathan of Pepperdine fell to Chris Cocotos and Michael Flanagan of Stanford, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4.

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Although Pete Sampras lost to Sergi Bruguera, 6-3, 6-1, the United States beat defending champion Spain, 2-1, in the World Team Cup at Duesseldorf, Germany, and will play Germany in today’s final.

Patrick McEnroe and Richey Reneberg beat the doubles team of Bruguera and Tomas Carbonell, 6-3, 6-1, to clinch the victory over Spain. Earlier, Michael Chang beat Carlos Costa, 6-7 (3-7), 6-4, 6-1.

The United States is seeking its fourth consecutive World Team Cup championship.

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Judith Wiesner of Austria and Noako Sawamatsu of Japan will meet in the final of the Strasbourg Open in France for the second year in a row. Wiesner upset top-seeded Jana Novotna of the Czech Republic, 7-6 (11-9), 6-4, and Sawamatsu beat Sandrine Testud of France, 6-4, 6-0.

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Sixth-seeded Lindsay Davenport upset third-seeded Sabine Hack of Germany, 6-2, 6-7 (8-6), 6-1, and fourth-seeded Nicole Provis of Australia topped Linda Ferrando of Italy, 6-3, 6-2, in the semifinals of the European Open at Lucerne, Switzerland.