Tennis Roundup : Courier, Goldie Reach Semifinals

American teen-ager Jim Courier saved two match points in a decisive third-set tiebreaker Friday and edged Paolo Cane of Italy to move into the semifinals of the $642,500 Scandinavian tennis championships at Stockholm.

Courier, 18, came from behind to win, 4-6, 6-2, 7-6, in his first indoor tournament as a professional. He won the last 4 points of the tiebreaker.

Fellow American Dan Goldie followed up his victory over top-seeded Mats Wilander Thursday with a 6-2, 7-6 win over seventh-seeded Emilio Sanchez of Spain, 6-2, 7-6, in another quarterfinal.

Third-seed Boris Becker of West Germany edged Robert Seguso, 6-4, 7-6, and will face Goldie in one of today’s semifinal matches. Peter Lundgren beat fellow Swede Jan Gunnarsson, 6-4, 6-4, and will play Courier in the other semifinal.

John McEnroe, Amos Mansdorf of Israel and Andrei Chesnokov of the Soviet Union scored easy straight-set victories to advance to the semifinals of a $1-million tournament at Antwerp, Belgium.

However, Tim Mayotte, seeded second, lost his quarterfinal match to Switzerland’s Jakob Hlasek, who earned a match against McEnroe with a 6-1, 6-4 victory. Mansdorf will play Chesnokov in the other semifinal.

McEnroe overwhelmed Argentina’s Guillermo Perez-Roldan, 6-2, 6-1; Chesnokov defeated West Germany’s Ricki Osterthun, 6-3, 6-1, and Mansdorf beat seventh-seeded Andres Gomez of Ecuador, 6-2, 6-4.

Top-seeded Martina Navratilova eased past fifth-seeded Helena Sukova of Czechoslovakia to advance to the semifinals of a $300,000 tournament at Worcester, Mass.

Navratilova, who shouted at herself frequently during her 6-1, 6-2 victory, will face third-seeded Gabriela Sabatini of Argentina, who beat Helen Kelesi of Canada, 7-5, 6-4.

Sixth-seeded Natalia Zvereva of the Soviet Union advanced by eliminating Stephanie Rehe, 7-5, 6-2, less than 24 hours after Rehe upset fourth-seeded Pam Shriver.

Zvereva will face second-seeded Chris Evert, who outlasted Barbara Potter, 4-6, 7-5, 6-2, in a match that took 2 hours 17 minutes.

Lori McNeil rallied to win her singles match, then teamed with Betsy Nagelsen to win the doubles as the United States retained the Wightman Cup by taking an unbeatable 4-0 lead over Britain in the best-of-7 series at London.

McNeil overcame Sara Gomer, 6-7, 6-4, 6-4, to give the U.S. team a 3-0 lead, then teamed with Nagelsen to defeat Gomer and Julie Salmon, 6-3, 6-2.

It was the United States’ 50th win in 60 meetings. Britain hasn’t won since 1978.

Sherwood Stewart defeated fourth-seeded Bob Lutz in the quarterfinals of the $40,000 Grand Champions tournament at Rancho San Clemente Tennis Club, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.

Stan Smith, 1972 Wimbledon champion and 1971 U.S. Open champion, lost to Sandy Mayer, 6-3, 6-2.

Spain’s Jose Higueras defaulted a match against second-seeded Hank Pfister when he aggravated a sprained ankle. Pfister, who leads the Grand Champions circuit in prize money, will play Stewart today.

Mayer will meet Tom Gullikson, who defeated Frew McMillan, 6-1, 6-3.