TENNIS ROUNDUP : Korda Beats Edberg to Reach Final

Petr Korda says he was a ball boy when Ivan Lendl played for their native Czechoslovakia in a Davis Cup match against Sweden at Prague in 1979.

Today, Korda will play Lendl in the final of the Hamlet Cup tournament at Commack, N.Y., and is looming as a dark horse in the U.S. Open, which starts Monday.

Korda upset top-seeded Stefan Edberg of Sweden, 7-5, 7-5, Saturday in the semifinals, and Lendl defeated Michael Chang for the third consecutive week, 6-2, 6-3.

“It doesn’t bother me that I’m never picked with players who can win the Open,” Korda said. “I’ll be ready for the big players.”

The fourth-seeded Korda, a finalist in the French Open this year, won with service breaks while leading Edberg, 6-5, in both sets.

“The guy played very well,” Edberg said. “He had a little extra luck, especially when he broke me in the last game of each set. But he proved he’s a very good player.

“He could do well at the Open. The only worry I’d have if I were him is he played so well today. You don’t want to play your best the week before the Open.”

Lendl, a five-time Hamlet winner, took command with a run of five games in the first set and won the last four games of the match.

Jamie Morgan of Australia surprised fifth-seeded Emilio Sanchez of Spain, 6-4, 7-6 (7-5), in the semifinals of the OTB International Open at Schenectady, N.Y.

Morgan, 21, lost in the final round of the qualifying rounds, but got into the main draw as a “lucky loser” when Tomas Carbonell withdrew because of an ankle injury.

In the other semifinal, third-seeded Wayne Ferreira of South Africa beat Andrei Chesnokov of Russia, 6-4, 6-2.

Earlier in the day, Ferreira completed his quarterfinal match, a 6-7 (7-4), 6-3, 6-3 victory over Richard Fromberg of Australia.

With a victory in the final, Morgan would join Christian Miniussi as the only other “lucky loser” to win a tournament. Miniussi won in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 1991.

In the women’s semifinals, fourth-seeded Brenda Schultz of the Netherlands beat Florencia Labat of Argentina, 6-1, 6-4, and third-seeded Barbara Rittner of Germany advanced when Marianne Werdel withdrew because of a strained neck muscle after losing the first set, 6-1.

Top-seeded Thomas Muster of Austria defeated third-seeded Jose Arrese of Spain, 6-4, 6-4, and reached the final of the Croatian Open at Umag, Croatia.

In today’s final, Muster will face fifth-seeded Franco Davin of Argentina, who advanced when Horst Skoff of Austria came down with flu and retired early in the first set.