Tennis Roundup : Stunned in First Set, Sabatini Recovers to Reach Semifinals

Second-seeded Gabriela Sabatini fought through a six-game slump at Rome to reach the semifinals of the Italian Open women’s tennis championships Friday with a 3-6, 6-1, 6-1 victory over seventh-seeded Sylvia Hanika of West Germany.

Sabatini broke serve for a 3-1 lead, but Hanika won the last five games of the first set and took the first game of the second before Sabatini swept the next six games.

The 17-year-old Argentine kept up the pace in the third set and won on the first match point.

Sabatini advanced to a meeting with 13th-seeded Judith Wiesner of Austria, who upset sixth-seeded Sandra Cecchini of Italy, 6-3, 6-3.

Also reaching the semifinals of the $200,000 clay court tournament were eighth-seeded Arantxa Sanchez of Spain and 18-year-old Helen Kelesi of Canada, seeded 14th.

Sanchez downed Bettina Fulco of Argentina, 6-4, 6-4, while Kelesi upset fifth-seeded Raffaella Reggi of Italy, 6-4, 6-3.

Fifth-seeded Andre Agassi beat fellow teen-ager Michael Chang, 6-2, 6-4, at Port Washington, N.Y., to advance to the quarterfinals of the Tournament of Champions.

The match between Agassi, 18, and Chang, 16, was suspended because of rain Thursday and was moved from the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills to the Port Washington Tennis Academy after another downpour Friday.

In other third-round matches, Luiz Mattar of Brazil wrapped up a 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 victory over Diego Perez of Uruguay, and Slobodan Zivojinovic of Yugoslavia beat Jay Berger, 6-1, 6-7, 6-1.