No. 1 Wilander Upset in Quarterfinal Round

ROME —  Unseeded Jay Berger upset No. 1 seed Mats Wilander 6-3, 6-4 today in the third round match of the Italian Open men’s tennis championships.

Fellow American Andre Agassi, the No. 2 seed, won two matches today to reach the semifinals. He first beat Leonardo Lavalle of Mexico 6-3, 6-4, completing a match that had been suspended by rain after one set the night before.

In a quarterfinal match that began three hours later, Agassi defeated No. 8 seed Guillermo Perez-Roldan of Argentina 6-3, 6-1.

The 19-year-old Agassi meets unseeded Sergi Bruguera of Spain in the semifinal round.

Berger, the world’s 34th-ranked player, used a strong first serve and an aggressive base line game to defeat the sub-par Swede. After dominating in the first set, Berger took a commanding 5-1 lead in the second. Faced with the threat of elimination, Wilander abandoned the base line and took to the offensive, managing to claw his way back into the match.

Berger got his first match point while serving at 5-4. After a short exchange, he drove a hard cross-court forehand deep into the corner, and Wilander batted it back into the net.

Berger also beat Wilander at Orlando, Fla., in 1988.

“I was serving well today,” said the 22-year-old American, who won the U.S. Clay Courts tournament in Charleston, S.C., last week.

Wilander, who has not won a tournament since September and slipped from No. 1 to No. 3 in the world, said he lacked mental concentration against Berger. Wilander also said he is still adjusting to a new wide-body racket that he began using only a week ago.

Graf, Sabatini Advance

In Bonn, top-seeded Steffi Graf of West Germany and second-seeded Gabriela Sabatini of Argentina advanced to the semifinals of the German Open women’s tennis tournament with identical victories today.

Graf, although bothered by a cold, swept past seventh-seeded Sandra Cecchini of Italy 6-2, 6-0, while Sabatini trounced eight-seeded Sylvia Hanika of West Germany, also 6-2, 6-0.

In the semifinals of the Virginia Slims event played on red clay, Graf will meet sixth-seeded Helen Kelesi of Canada, who overcame Barbara Paulus of Austria 6-3, 5-7, 6-3. Sabatini will play unseeded West German Isabel Cueto, who ousted Regina Rajchrtova of Czechoslovakia 3-6, 7-6, 6-2.