International Players Tennis Championships : Fernandez Is No Match for Evert in Semifinals

KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. — Second-seeded Chris Evert easily held off a challenge by a player half her age, beating 16-year-old Mary Joe Fernandez of Miami, 6-2, 6-1, Thursday to advance to the women’s final of the International Players Championships for the fourth straight year.

“I got wiped off the court,” said Fernandez, who is ranked 20th in the world. “She played pretty tough. She didn’t make many errors.”

Top-seeded Steffi Graf of West Germany met unseeded Stephanie Rehe of Highland, Calif., Thursday night in the other women’s semifinal. The final will be Saturday.

Evert, the 1986 champion, lost to Graf in last year’s final.

The men’s semifinals in the $2.1-million tournament will be played today. Top-seeded Mats Wilander meets sixth-seeded Yannick Noah, while second-seeded Jimmy Connors faces defending champion Miloslav Mecir, who is seeded third.

After Fernandez held her first serve to tie the match at one game apiece, Evert was in total control and needed just 66 minutes to win the 1,230th match of her career.

Evert took the first 5 games of the second set, winning 11 straight points in one span and 8 straight in another.

It was the first time Fernandez, seeded 15th, had reached the semifinals of a pro tournament. She said her five previous matches in the tournament took a toll.

“As the match progressed, I was getting to the ball later and later,” said Fernandez, who made 43 unforced errors to 19 for Evert. “I was a little slow.”

Evert, 33, has a 5-0 advantage in their rivalry. Two of the four previous matches went three sets.

After watching Fernandez upset third-seeded Gabriela Sabatini in the fourth round, Evert said she was nervous before the match.

“In this kind of match, I have everything to lose and nothing to gain,” said Evert, who makes her home in Boca Raton, Fla. “Mary Joe is a tough player, but if I win it’s expected, and if I lose it’s an upset. I knew I had to play well against her. She’s a good player.”

Crowd support for the two South Florida players was evenly divided. About 100 of Fernandez’s classmates from Carrollton School of the Sacred Heart, who were given the day off by school officials, chanted, “Mary Joe, Mary Joe,” before and after the match.

“It reminded me of when I was her age,” said Evert, who broke onto the international tennis scene when she was a 16-year-old high school student in Fort Lauderdale. “When I was playing Billie Jean (King), my classmates came out a couple of times.”