Date, Davenport in Semifinals at the Garden

Japan’s Kimiko Date fought off five match points Friday night to continue her mastery over Spain’s Conchita Martinez and eliminate the Wimbledon champion from the Virginia Slims Championships.

The hard-fought, 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-1) victory boosted the eighth-seeded Date into the semifinals of the $3.5-million, season-ending tennis tournament at New York’s Madison Square Garden. It also made No. 5 Mary Pierce of France the highest-seeded player still chasing the $250,000 first-place prize.

In four meetings, Date has beaten Martinez three times, all this year.

In Friday’s first quarterfinal, seventh-seeded Lindsay Davenport of Murrieta defeated No. 4 Jana Novotna of the Czech Republic, 6-2, 6-2.

Today’s semifinals will pit Pierce against Davenport and Date against unseeded Gabriela Sabatini.

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With some help from Boris Becker, top-ranked Pete Sampras reached the semifinals of the IBM-ATP Tour World Championship at Frankfurt, Germany, joining Becker, Andre Agassi and Sergi Bruguera in the final four. Becker beat Stefan Edberg, 6-7 (7-3), 6-4, 7-5, and won his group title with a 3-0 record. Sampras defeated Goran Ivanisevic, 6-3, 6-4. Ivanisevic, a semifinalist the last two years, not only failed to win a match this time, but faces a two-month suspension after a second-set outburst.

Hockey

Negotiators for the NHL and its players’ association will meet Monday to review suggestions made during two days of talks in Boston.

“The difference is there’s actual negotiations now,” one source said. “Nothing has been checked off the list, but there is a constructive tone.”

Key topics were the draft, entry-level salaries, free agency for mid-range players, unrestricted free agency for veteran players and salary arbitration. Player agents Don Baizley, Don Meehan and Tom Reich, who have been serving as go-betweens, and Toronto General Manager Cliff Fletcher were credited with spurring the pace of the talks.

Progress was made in defining entry-level salary restrictions and speculation continues that owners might drop their proposed payroll “tax” if players accept limits on salary arbitration. However, asked if an agreement is near, Commissioner Gary Bettman said: “I don’t want to handicap it. I don’t want to hold out false hope. We have a disagreement on a number of the issues that need to be resolved.”

Golf

Though he lost his putting touch, Robert Gamez shot a one-under-par 71 at Old Del Monte and holds a two-stroke lead after two rounds of the Pebble Beach Invitational.

Gamez is at eight-under 136. Former U.S. Open winner Johnny Miller, making a rare tournament appearance, shot 67 at Spyglass Hill, and Gary Hallberg shot 66 at Old Del Monte, both good for 138 totals.

A day after a record-tying round of 64 gave him a five-stroke lead, Howard Twitty shot a four-under-par 68 and led the Mexican Open by four shots after 36 holes at Mexico City.

Twitty completed two tours of the 7,142-yard Club de Golf Mexico at 12-under 132, four ahead of Bob Tway, who had a 67.

College Football

Northwestern will be without Dennis Lundy, the school’s all-time rushing leader, when the Wildcats play second-ranked Penn State today. Lundy was suspended and the school gave no explanation.

The NCAA has accepted Clemson’s self-imposed penalties as complete and has signed off on an incident regarding assistant coach Miles Aldridge and South Carolina linebacker Robert Smith.

Miscellany

The Angels, unable to find any team willing to take him during the general manager meetings earlier this week, removed relief pitcher Joe Grahe from their roster and designated him for assignment. Grahe was supposed to replace Bryan Harvey as the club’s closer but saved only 24 games the last two seasons. The Angels are hoping to sign free-agent closer Lee Smith but have yet to discuss a contract with his agent.

Shannon Miller dropped out, but the United States reached the finals of the Gymnastics World Team Championships at Dortmund, Germany, by finishing second to Romania in qualifying. Miller, who won five medals in the 1992 Olympics, withdrew before the optionals, saying she wanted to lighten her tournament load.

Kathryn Sobrero scored on a header off a corner kick to give top-ranked Notre Dame a 1-0 victory over Portland in the semifinals of the NCAA women’s soccer tournament at Portland, Ore. The Irish (23-0-1) will meet No. 2 North Carolina for the championship Sunday. North Carolina, which beat Connecticut, 3-0, is seeking its ninth consecutive title.

Four-time European champion Surya Bonaly of France rallied from third place to win the women’s competition at the French Trophy international figure skating competition at Lyon. Another French skater, Philippe Candeloro, won the men’s competition.

Halil Mutlu of Turkey broke seven world records at the World Weightlifting Championships at Istanbul.