DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla. -- Chris Evert Lloyd and Andrea Jaeger, the top two seeds, reached the final of a $125,000 tennis championship for the third straight year.
The event is known as the Linda Carter Classic.
Evert, the U.S. Open champion and two-time winner of the tournament, shook off a tenacious Andrea Leand, unseeded, 6-4, 6-4, after Leand had startled the crowd and Evert by winning the first four games. Evert, No. 2 in the world, then took control.
Leand, ranked 18th, lost 10 of the next 11 games.
But Jaeger, fifth in world rankings, had a battle before defeating fifth-seeded Pam Shriver 3-6, 7-6, 7-6, in a match interrupted by a two-hour blackout and which ended with Shriver yelling foul.
Jaeger overcame Shriver's persistent net attack to win the second set tiebreaker, 7-3, and even the match. The lights went out in the third game. Power company officials had the lights back on within an hour but five minutes later, they went out again as a second fuse blew in a transformer.
An hour later, the players were back on the court.
Jaeger was serving for the match twice, at 5-4 and 6-5, but Shriver broke her twice to reach the tiebreaker. Shriver then took a 6-2 lead and held four match points. But Jaeger had two winning serves and two winning volleys.
Shriver held a fifth match point, at 7-6, and thought she won on a Jaeger shot to the baseline which appeared out. No call was made. Jaeger, 7-7, then won the next two points and the match.
Shriver dispute the final shot, and later said, 'I can't feel any worse losing a match than I do now. I lost to an umpire, not to Andrea Jaeger. I told Lee Jackson (chair umpire) I thought she and the baseline umpire (Nancy Horowitz) choked on the call. They blew it.'
Jaeger, who had beaten Shriver only once in six meetngs, said, 'One point? You can't go back and play it over. The crowd also thought some hit to me were out and they weren't. I was up twice on service breaks in the third set and should have won there but didn't. It's just a matter of sticking in there.'
Sunday's final between Lloyd and Jaeger will start at 5 p.m. EDT.
