Tennis Roundup : McEnroe, Lendl and Agassi Reach Semifinals

John McEnroe, seeking his first tournament title since October, defeated Brad Gilbert, 6-3, 6-2, Friday in the quarterfinals of the $315,000 Volvo International at Stratton Mountain, Vt.

Relying on the serve-and-volley game that made him the top player in the world from 1981-84, McEnroe broke Gilbert in the eighth game of the first set and again in the first and third games of the second set.

McEnroe faces Christo van Rensburg in today’s semifinals. Van Rensburg beat fellow South African Danie Visser, 6-2, 6-3.

Andre Agassi, 17, the surprise of the tournament, reached the semifinals of a major tournament for the first time with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Joey Rive.

Today, Agassi will meet Ivan Lendl, who had little trouble defeating Kelly Jones, 6-3, 6-1.

Agassi, who eliminated Wimbledon champion Pat Cash in the second round, stayed in the backcourt against Rive and hit 16 winners off ground strokes while forcing Rive into 22 errors.

Does Agassi, the brother-in-law of Pancho Gonzalez, think he can out-rally Lendl?

“Who knows? I never really thought about myself playing him,” Agassi said.

McEnroe went to the net 47 times--more than twice the number for Gilbert--and won 34 points to go with 5 aces and 3 service winners.

Eighth-seeded Nathalie Tauziat of France upset second-seeded Kate Gompert, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4, in the $75,000 Virginia Slims of San Diego.

“I believed in myself (after the second set),” Tauziat said. “She played well, but I wasn’t bad. If I could play a little better, I thought, why shouldn’t I win?”

Tauziat was one of three Frenchwomen in the quarterfinals but the only one to advance. Isabelle Demongeot lost to Raffaella Reggi of Italy, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, and Nathalie Herreman lost to Anne Minter of Australia, 6-4, 6-2.

In today’s semifinals, Tauziat will play Reggi, and Minter will meet top-seeded Lori McNeil.

McNeil, ranked 11th in the world, trailed 4-1 in the second set of her quarterfinal match against the 65th-ranked Elly Hakami and then faced two set points before winning, 6-3, 7-6.

Czechoslovakia’s Miloslav Mecir eliminated Haiti’s Ronald Agenor, 6-4, 6-4, in the quarterfinals of a $250,000 tournament at Kitzbuhel, Austria.

In other matches, West Germany’s Tore Meinecke upset Argentina’s Guillermo Perez-Roldan, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4; Spain’s Emilio Sanchez beat Peru’s Pablo Arraya, 6-4, 6-2, and Australia’s Darren Cahill defeated West Germany’s Ricki Osterthun, 6-3, 1-6, 7-5.