Edberg

COMMACK, N.Y. -- Stefan Edberg held off Jimmy Connors in three sets, and Ivan Lendl rallied past Omar Camporese, as the top two seeds advanced to the semifinals of the Hamlet Challenge Cup yesterday.Connors, 38 and ranked No. 195 in the world, made Edberg, ranked No. 2, work for every point before losing, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4. Lendl rallied after losing the first two games for a 7-6 (7-5), 6-3 victory.In another quarterfinal at the Hamlet Golf and Country Club, qualifier Olivier Delaitre of Luxembourg beat Thierry Champion of France, 6-4, 6-4.Fourth seed John McEnroe used pinpoint accuracy and a commanding serve to overpower Luiz Mattar of Brazil, 6-3, 6-1, in the last quarterfinal match last night.

NEW YORK -- No. 13 seed Patrick Rafter watched Michael Chang's amazing forehand passing shot scoot off the court like a comet, saw Chang go into a frenzy -- jumping up and down, shaking his racket, his fist, his entire being.Rafter watched and mentally cringed. It was, after all, the start of the third set of their U.S. Open men's semifinal and Chang, the No. 2 seed who is known for five-set comebacks, was getting pumped."I thought the whole thing was going to turn around right there," Rafter said, running his hand through his wet, dark hair.

WASHINGTON -- Despite heat that hit triple digits, numerous rain delays, sparse crowds and a liquidated field from many top seeds falling early, Stefan Edberg wants to come back to Washington.Why not? Yesterday, Edberg's seven-day stay in the nation's capital produced yet another title and an $87,500 check.Edberg ended the week with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over No. 14 seed Jason Stoltenberg to take the title at the Legg Mason Tennis Classic."I hope to be back next year," Edberg told the crowd as he accepted his trophy.

NEW YORK -- Stefan Edberg made a glorious run to the quarterfinals at the U.S. Open, but last night he had to say goodbye.However, Edberg, playing in his last Grand Slam tournament before retiring, gave the fans at the Stadium Court a little something to cheer about when he rallied to take the third set to a tiebreaker before bowing out to No. 4 seed Goran Ivanisevic, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (11-9)."I was hoping for a good U.S. Open," said Edberg. "As the week has gone on, I played good, solid tennis and that was the goal.

WASHINGTON -- Of all the people involved in Jason Stoltenberg's athletic career, it was his mother who may have had the most impact on his future.For example, his mother told Stoltenberg -- a rugby fan -- that he couldn't play rugby because he'd get his teeth knocked out. And it was his mother, when he was 10, who introduced him to the game he would make a career of."It was purely a mistake," Stoltenberg said. "[My parents] played tennis socially, and I wanted to try it out. My mom had to show me where to stand and everything.

WASHINGTON -- He didn't drop a set last year en route to the Legg Mason Tennis Classic title. Now, after a relatively easy road into the quarterfinals, Stefan Edberg has had to battle all kinds of elements to get back into the final.Playing with a sore shoulder and fatigued from his three-set, rain-delayed comeback win late Friday night, Edberg yesterday held off Australian Patrick Rafter, 7-5, 5-7, 6-2, to advance to his second consecutive Classic final.The second seed will face top-ranked Andre Agassi today at 2 p.m. Agassi knocked off fourth seed Todd Martin, 6-4, 7-6 (7-5)

WASHINGTON -- Many players believed, before they came to Washington, that the summer heat would be an important factor in their play this week at the Legg Mason Tennis Classic.Stefan Edberg knew the heat -- which reached 100 degrees on stadium court at noon -- could be a problem, but he didn't give it a chance to set in yesterday. In his first match after receiving a first-round bye, Edberg, the highest seed remaining in the tournament, defeated unseeded Alex Antonitsch in just 61 minutes, 6-2, 6-1."

MELBOURNE, Australia -- No surprise here: No. 1 Jim Courier and No. 2 Stefan Edberg will play today in the men's final at the Australian Open."The last time we played here, he was the underdog," said Edberg, who lost in four sets to Courier in last year's final. "This year, it will be a little different. I will be the underdog. He is the No. 1 player in the world."Courier advanced by defeating Michael Stich of Germany, 7-6 (7-4), 6-4, 6-2. Stich won the battle of the service speed gun but could not match the American's relentless consistency from the baseline and regular brilliance on service returns.

MELBOURNE, Australia -- It was Australia Day, a celebration of the nation's birth, but it was an all-American celebration at the Australian Open after Jim Courier won the year's first Grand Slam tournament and stood poised to become the first U.S. man since John McEnroe in 1985 to be ranked No. 1 in the world.Courier, currently ranked second, scored a decisive 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 victory over Stefan Edberg to leave him trailing the world's No. 1 player by only 20 points on the Association of Tennis Professionals computer.

WIMBLEDON, England -- Tennis, boring? Don't even think about it.This 1994 edition of Wimbledon is going into the record books as one to remember.A rock 'em, sock 'em upset bonanza.Only four days into this two-week marathon there already have been more major upsets in the first two rounds than ever before here.On Tuesday, women's No. 1 seed Steffi Graf became the first women's defending champion to lose in the first round.On Wednesday, Michael Stich became the first No. 2 seed in 63 years to get knocked out by a qualifier.

NEW YORK -- At times, Stefan Edberg couldn't believe how his forehand volley deserted him, couldn't fathom why his timing was off.But as his match with England's Tim Henman moved through its second and into its third hours, Edberg's 30-year-old body loosened up, his volleys hit their marks, and the man who has been on the verge of saying farewell to his pro tennis career here for more than 10 days showed that his desire to put off his departure is strong.The...

NEW YORK -- Richard Krajicek's first serve in yesterday's match was supposed to send Stefan Edberg a message. Instead, it was Krajicek who got the message."

WIMBLEDON, England -- As the sun set here this evening, so did Stefan Edberg's Wimbledon career. The two-time champion fell to countryman Mikael Tillstrom's faster, younger legs, 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4."Stefan was always my favorite at Wimbledon," said Tillstrom, 24. "I wasn't bothered by the crowd support for him because I knew it would be that way. To beat Stefan Edberg at his last Wimbledon, when I hadn't played anything on grass before, this was very big, very special for me."It was a much more pleasant story for No. 10 seed Michael Stich, a 7-6 (7-2)

WIMBLEDON, England -- Manicured to perfection, the lush green grass on Wimbledon's Centre Court gave three-time defending champion Pete Sampras as much trouble as opponent Richey Reneberg yesterday.The slippery surface and Reneberg's return of service gave Sampras a scare in the early going, but in the end, he emerged with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 victory in the famed tournament's opening round."After I lost the first set, I told myself that I wasn't going to panic," he said.But when Reneberg broke him in the third game of the second set to take a 2-1 lead, Sampras' face revealed his distress and he hung his head low during the changeover.

PARIS -- It was a sweet enough spring day, but Roland Garros germinated a pair of bitter defeats. The tunnel-visioned Thomas Muster no longer can pursue a second consecutive French Open crown, and Stefan Edberg, the consummate tennis professional, will retire without ever having earned one.Muster's four-set loss to Michael Stich ended the chance of extending the recent string of back-to-back winners, launched by Jim Courier in 1991 and 1992 and followed by...

PARIS -- He never has won a French Open championship, and if he doesn't win this year's, he never will.Stefan Edberg, unseeded for his final try at the only Grand Slam event to elude him, took a never-say-never attitude into his match with Michael Chang yesterday and turned a gloomy afternoon incandescent with his serve-and-volley artistry."

WASHINGTON -- The Legg Mason Tennis Classic final pitted two completely different personalities with different games and different things to prove.Stefan Edberg, the gentlemanly, serve-and-volleying Swede and the defending champion, has been written off by many for being in the twilight of his career and having lost all desire to be the best.Andre Agassi, the brash, overpowering showman, an American at the peak of his game, is trying to prove that he can maintain the consistency of being the top player in the world.

WASHINGTON -- With seeded players falling about as often as raindrops at this year's Legg Mason Tennis Classic, it seemed only fitting that the luck of the draw pitted the two highest remaining seeds against each other in the quarterfinals and that the day's scheduled matches were interrupted by rain.No. 2 seed Stefan Edberg and No. 8 seed Aaron Krickstein did not anticipate at the start of this tournament that they would be the sole top-10 seeds remaining by the quarterfinals. Nor did either expect that theirs would be the only match of the tournament pitting two top-10 seeds against each other.

PARIS -- Stefan Edberg, loath to retire without a French Open title to balance out his Grand Slam collection, still has Paris.Yesterday at the French Open, where 88-degree sunshine sent more than one fair weather spectator to the hospital, Edberg kept his cool against a long-haired Spanish hotshot in a headband.Edberg, 30, using a game of serve-and-volley on Center Court, trampled 20th-ranked Carlos Moya, 6-2, 6-2, 6-1."I think it was one of those days where everything that you do turns into gold; I felt like I was 20 today," said Edberg, who received a standing ovation when he left the court.

NEW YORK -- Andre Agassi and Stefan Edberg stood for a moment at their chairs on Stadium Court and looked around them, taking in the full house and the standing ovation. They had come here for a third-round match in the U.S. Open, but the atmosphere said something else."It was like a semifinal or a final," said Edberg. "I wanted to give them what they came for.""I looked at Stefan, and I thought how funny it was to see him in a third-round match," said Agassi, who won, 6-4, 6-3, 6-1, and advanced to the round of 16. "Usually, when I see him in the third round, it's just because he's in the stands scouting me."