TENNIS ROUNDUP : No. 1 USC, UCLA Advance to Men’s NCAA Semifinals

USC and UCLA advanced to the semifinals of the NCAA Division I men’s tennis championships at South Bend, Ind., on Sunday.

Top-ranked USC defeated Texas, 4-2, and will play Mississippi State, a 4-2 winner over Georgia, today.

UCLA defeated Texas Christian, 4-3, and will play Stanford, a 4-0 winner over Duke.

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Eighth-seeded Tim Cooley and unseeded Tran Nguyen, both of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, lost to fourth-seeded Seth Denawetz of Kalamazoo College in the NCAA Division III men’s championships at Redlands. Denawetz beat Cooley, 1-6, 6-3, 6-3, in the quarterfinals and defeated Nguyen, 6-1, 6-4, in the semifinals. Denawetz will play Tom Reifenheiser of Wesleyan College of Connecticut for the title.

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Third-seeded Mary Joe Fernandez defeated top-seeded Gabriela Sabatini, 2-6, 6-4, 6-0, to win the Strasbourg Open in France. Sabatini hasn’t won a tournament since the Italian Open in May of 1992, a streak of 36 consecutive tournaments.

“I’m not thinking about winning a tournament,” Sabatini said. “I play my best each week and the rest will come.”

Fernandez has been sidelined most of the year after a stomach operation last fall.

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Michael Stich defeated Sergei Bruguera, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3, and won a decisive doubles match as Germany edged Spain to win the World Team Cup in Duesseldorf, Germany.

Stich and Patrik Kuehnen edged Carlos Costa and Tomas Carbonell, 7-5, 4-6, 6-4, as Germany won its first title since 1989.

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Third-seeded Javier Sanchez defeated fellow Spaniard and top-seeded Alberto Berasategui, 7-6 (7-3), 4-6, 6-4, to win the Bologna Open in Italy.