Gomez Eases to Hardcourt Win

Andres Gomez dispatched John Lloyd, 6-4, 6-4, in Friday’s opening quarterfinal match of the Champions tennis event at the Sherwood Country Club.

Tour co-founder and No. 1 seeded Jimmy Connors defeated Guillermo Vilas, 6-2, 6-1, in an evening match. In today’s semifinals, Connors faces Gomez at 1 p.m. and Johan Kriek plays Tim Wilkison at 7:30 p.m.

In his first match on a hard-court surface in three years, Gomez seized control by breaking Lloyd’s serve in the third game of the first set.

Lloyd hurt his cause by hitting a wide array of shots into the net. Forehands, backhands, overheads all found their way to the twine.

“I couldn’t time the ball from the word go and my return of serve was dreadful,” said the 41-year old Lloyd, a resident of Pacific Palisades. “Andres hits a very heavy ball and playing during the day it seemed like it was coming 20 miles per hour faster.”

The 35-year old Gomez said his early break set the tone.

“In the first set I was getting a lot of first serves in and had [Lloyd] on the defensive,” said Gomez, a native of Ecuador.

In doubles, Jose-Luis Clerc and Hank Pfister defeated Bjorn Borg and Roscoe Tanner, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4. They will play the winner of Kriek/Vilas Gomez/ Wilkison match.