Tennis Roundup : Becker Escapes Defeat, Moves Into Semifinals

West Germany’s Boris Becker, the only survivor among the top three, advanced to the semifinals of the $375,000 Canadian Open tennis tournament with a 6-4, 7-6 victory over Bud Schultz Friday at Toronto.

Becker, seeded No. 2, had an easy time winning the first set and was leading, 5-1, in the second before Schultz, ranked 57th in the world, came to life and ripped off five consecutive games.

After the elimination Thursday of top-seeded Ivan Lendl, third-seeded Yannick Noah and fifth-seeded John McEnroe, Schultz sent a ripple of excitement through the crowd as he took a 6-5 lead.

There were visions of a third set and, perhaps, another upset. But Becker held serve in the 12th game to force the tiebreaker.

The 18-year-old West German then fell behind, 4-1, before putting on a rally of his own. At 5-5 in the tiebreaker, Schultz hit a service return into the net and made another unforced error at the net to give Becker the match.

“At 5-1 in the second set, I was probably thinking already of having a nice massage,” Becker said. “I lost my concentration. I started to get loose, lost a service game, and he started to get confident.

“I’m glad I won 7-6 in the set and not 6-1 because it was a tougher test. I felt tired and lazy, but I am in the semifinals now so I should be satisfied,” Becker said.

“I just felt at 5-4 in the tiebreaker that I’m going to win the tiebreaker. That’s the big advantage I have now compared to the beginning of the year or last year.

“I just have that much more confidence now that when it’s five-all in the tiebreaker, I feel I’m going to make the point somehow.”

Last week, Becker eliminated Schultz, 6-4, 7-6, in the opening round of a Grand Prix event at Stratton Mountain, Vt.

“Last week, I played him tough and I thought that would be a springboard for me for the rest of the summer,” Schultz said. “But obviously I’m still somewhere up in the air.

“I felt more confident against him this week. But he’s a world ahead of me in experience as far as tennis is concerned.”

Becker’s opponent in today’s semifinals will be Jonathan Canter, who advanced with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory over Marcel Freeman.

In another quarterfinal match, fourth-seeded Stefan Edberg of Sweden defeated 12th-seeded Robert Seguso, 6-1, 6-2. It was Seguso who had ousted McEnroe on Thursday.

The final quarterfinal match between 15th-seeded Kevin Curren and Christo Steyn of South Africa was rained out and will be played this morning. Curren is the player who knocked Lendl out of the tournament.

Jimmy Connors, Eliot Teltscher and Andres Gomez won their third-round matches in a $100,000 tournament at Stowe, Vt.

Connors defeated fifth-seeded Jaime Yzaga, 6-4, 6-2; Teltscher downed Guillermo Vilas, 3-6, 6-2, 7-5, and Gomez ousted Shlomo Glickstein, 6-3, 7-6.