COLLEGE TENNIS : Foreign Men Dominate as Falk, Knowles Advance

PALM DESERT —  If the National Collegiate Tennis Classic is any indication, U.S. men still have some catching up to do.

Saturday’s quarterfinals at Shadow Mountain Resort each matched an American and a foreigner. The results: Rest of the World 4, United States 0.

In the semifinals later Saturday, defending champion and top-seeded Conny Falk of Miami (Fla.) and Sweden moved into today’s final with a 6-0, 6-4 victory over unseeded David Nainken of UCLA and South Africa, 6-0, 6-4. Unseeded Mark Knowles of UCLA and the Bahamas upset second-seeded Byron Black of USC and Zimbabwe, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Today’s women’s final matches defending champion and third-seeded Trisha Laux of USC against No. 2 Debbie Graham of Stanford. Laux was a 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 winner over top-seeded Sandra Birch of Stanford; Graham, the 1990 NCAA champion, defeated fourth-seeded Julie Exum of Duke, 6-2, 7-5.