TENNIS ROUNDUP : Graf, Sanchez Vicario Reach Final

What seemed like an easy victory turned into a struggle for top-seeded Steffi Graf, who fought off Gabriela Sabatini’s second-set comeback Saturday to reach the final of the Family Circle Cup at Hilton Head Island, S.C.

Graf, a 6-0, 7-6 (7-3) winner, will face No. 2 Arantxa Sanchez Vicario in today’s championship of the clay-court tournament.

Sanchez Vicario, who had never gone beyond the semifinals in five appearances here, won the last nine games to defeat No. 4 Jennifer Capriati, 2-6, 7-5, 6-0.

Graf won the first 10 games and had two match points at 5-1. But she began making errors while Sabatini was nearly mistake-free, reeling off five consecutive games for a 6-5 lead. Twice during Sabatini’s run, Graf lost games without winning a point.

Graf recovered to force a tiebreaker, where she jumped to a 3-0 lead. Sabatini closed to 4-3, but then had her fourth double-fault and missed two forehand returns to end it.

In the first set and through a 4-0 lead in the second, Graf looked unstoppable. She served at close to 100 m.p.h. and kept her ground strokes deep.

Whenever Sabatini rushed the net, Graf pounded a passing shot.

But Graf’s fortunes changed quickly.

“You look back and say, ‘Wow, you are playing great. It’s easy right now.’ And maybe you take it a little too easy,” Graf said.

Capriati had an easy time in the early going against Sanchez Vicario, but that match also changed rapidly.

Leading, 4-2, in the second set, Capriati lost her serve without winning a point in the seventh game. Capriati made it 5-4, but then failed to win another game.

“She didn’t change the whole match,” Capriati said. “She played one way, get everything back and wait for me to miss.”

Jim Courier, the world’s top-ranked player, was upset by Amos Mansdorf of Israel, 7-5, 7-6 (7-4), in the semifinals of the Salem Open at Osaka, Japan.

Mansdorf, 36th in the computer rankings, beat Courier in a two-hour struggle on the hard courts of Esaka Tennis Center.

The Israeli will play Courier’s second-seeded countryman, Michael Chang, in the final. Chang struggled past French qualifier Stephane Simian, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.

Fourth-seeded Karel Novacek played a patient baseline game on the rain-damp clay courts at Estoril, Portugal, to defuse the big serve of Manus Gustafsson for a 6-4, 6-4 victory in the semifinals of the Estoril Open.

Novacek, from the Czech Republic, will play fifth-seeded Andrei Medvedev in the title match. The 18-year-old Ukrainian defeated beat Emilio Sanchez, 6-4, 6-2.