TENNIS ROUNDUP : Top Players Continue to Fall in Washington

Eighth-seeded Amos Mansdorf of Israel upset No. 2 Petr Korda, 6-3, 6-3, and No. 3 Mal Washington was a 7-5, 6-4 loser to 11th-seeded Richey Reneberg, his Davis Cup teammate, in quarterfinal matches of the $625,000 Newsweek Tennis Classic on Friday at Washington.

Mansdorf and Reneberg will meet in one semifinal today, and Todd Martin, at No. 7 the only other seeded player remaining in the tournament, will play Aaron Krickstein. Martin was a 6-3, 6-3 winner over Japan’s Shuzo Matsuoka, and Krickstein beat Gianluca Pozzi of Italy, 6-3, 6-0.

Korda, the defending champion, double-faulted five times and his service was broken three times.

“He played well,” Korda said. “I certainly didn’t play at the top of my game today. I think I need a couple of days away, just to hit some balls hard, really hard.”

Korda, who along with Martin Damm played Davis Cup against Germany last weekend for the Czech Republic, has talked all week of the difficulties of adjusting from grass to a hard surface.

“I’ve had very bad timing,” he said. “On grass, you can hit one bad shot and the point is over. Here, you have to play every single shot.”

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France, capitalizing on Jana Novotna’s nervousness, ended Czechoslovakia’s hopes of winning the Federation Cup in its last showing as a joint team, beating the Czechs, 3-0, in the quarterfinals at Frankfurt, Germany.

Julie Halard and Nathalie Tauziat swept the singles for the sixth-seeded French team in a 3-0 victory over the third-seeded team from former Czechoslovakia.

After Halard defeated Helena Sukova, Tauziat, ranked 15th, overcame Novotna, this year’s Wimbledon runner-up and No. 8 in the world, 6-1, 0-6, 6-3.

In Friday’s other quarterfinal, Conchita Martinez and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario posted straight-set victories, leading top-seeded Spain over No. 7 the Netherlands, 3-0.

In today’s semifinals, Spain, the 1991 champion, will play France, and Argentina will face Australia in a matchup of unseeded teams.

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Defending champion Andrei Medvedev took advantage of a crucial error by Javier Sanchez to beat the Spaniard, 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (7-4), and reach the semifinals of the Mercedes Cup at Stuttgart, Germany.

The victory by the third-seeded Ukrainian set up a match today with second-seeded Michael Stich of Germany, the 1991 winner. Stich beat Andrei Chesnokov of Russia, 6-2, 7-5.

Medvedev, 18, trailed, 4-2, in the third-set tiebreaker against Sanchez, who had played an almost errorless match from the baseline. Then Sanchez hit an easy forehand long and Medvedev won five points in a row.

Marc Goellner of Germany upset Karel Novacek of the Czech Republic, 6-3, 6-2, to reach the other semifinal against Magnus Gustafsson. The Swede beat South Africa’s Marcos Ondruska, 6-3, 6-2.