Tennis Roundup : Mayotte Ousts Connors in Pro Indoor Quarterfinals

Tim Mayotte upset second-seeded Jimmy Connors at Philadelphia Friday night to join top-seeded Ivan Lendl in the semifinals of the U.S. Pro Indoor tennis championships.

Mayotte, seeded seventh, beat Connors, 6-4, 6-2. Tonight, he will face fourth-seeded Yannick Noah, who defeated sixth-seeded Kevin Curren, 6-3, 7-6, earlier in the day.

Lendl, who came into the tournament as a last-minute replacement for John McEnroe, eliminated eight-seeded Paul Annacone, 6-4, 6-4, and will face 11th-seeded Brad Gilbert, who beat Jakob Hlasek of Switzerland, 6-7, 6-4, 6-3.

Mayotte broke Connors in the seventh game of the first set when Connors hit a forehand into the net. After the game, Connors said something to the umpire and received a code warning for abuse of an official.

Connors never had a break point on Mayotte during the set and lost the final game at love when his service return was wide.

Mayotte broke Connors at love in the fifth game of the second set with an overhead smash and broke him again in the seventh game, taking advantage of the third of his three break points with a service-return winner. He won the match when Connors’ return of serve was wide.

Top-seeded Chris Evert Lloyd continued her strong play in a $250,000 Women’s Tennis Assn. tournament at Key Biscayne, Fla., scoring a 6-1, 6-0 quarterfinal victory over 12th-seeded Stephanie Rehe.

Earlier, second-seeded Steffi Graf of West Germany beat eighth-seeded Wendy Turnbull of Australia, 6-1, 6-7, 6-2. In late matches, Manuela Maleeva of Bulgaria defeated Gabriela Sabatini of Argentina, 6-3, 6-2, and Bonnie Gadusek downed Kathleen Horvath, 7-5, 6-1.

Maleeva faces Lloyd, and Gadusek plays Graf in the semifinals.