Simi Valley’s Rowe Advances

Brad Rowe of Simi Valley and Hank Pfister of Bakersfield advanced Friday to the doubles semifinals of the National Men’s 45 Hard Court Championships at the Westlake Tennis & Swim Club.

They defeated Dave Bohannon of Long Beach and Kevin Kearney of Irvine, 6-4, 6-4.

Gene Malin of Woodland Hills was eliminated by Wendell Pierce of Oakland, 6-3, 6-4, in the singles quarterfinals and Herb Rapp of Westlake lost a singles consolation semifinal to Steve Cunninghame of Rohnert Park, 6-1, 6-1.

* Dejan Djokic of Burbank is seeded fourth and Philip Sheng of Thousand Oaks seventh in the Mercedes-Benz Cup pre-qualifier beginning Monday at the Los Angeles Tennis Club.

Artak Harutyunyan of Van Nuys and Galeh Karapetian of Glendale are also entered.

The winner earns a spot in the main qualifier July 22-23, where four spots are available for the Mercedes-Benz Cup on July 24-30.

Andre Agassi, Gustavo Kuerten, Marcelo Rios, Michael Chang, Thomas Enqvist and Goran Ivanisevic are entered in the Mercedes-Benz Cup.

BASKETBALL

* Pepperdine will play Indiana in the first round of the Preseason National Invitation Tournament on Nov. 14 at Indiana.