BRIGHTON, England -- Top-seed Steffi Graf of West Germany overcame a poor start and Bettina Bunge and Sweden's Catarina Lindqvist both caused upsets Friday to reach the semifinals of a $200,000 women's international tennis tournament.
Graf found her form in time to beat Californian Robin White 1-6, 6-4, 6-2 in the opening quarterfinal of the day's action at the Brighton Center. She will play Rosalyn Fairbank of South Africa, a 5-7, 6-3, 6-3 winner over Jo Durie of England, for a place in Sunday's final.
The other semifinal did not work out as expected. First, Bunge, also of West Germany, upset No. 2-seed Helena Sukova of Czechoslovakia 2-6, 6-4, 6-1, and then Lindqvist upset the third top German player in the tournament, Claudia Kohde-Kilsch, 6-2, 6-4.
Bunge scored her second victory of the year over Sukova after a dramatic turnaround in the match. Sukova appeared to be in control as she ran through the first set, but Bunge recovered her composure and dominated the play.
Having taken her opening game, Graf lost the next seven to concede the first set and trail 1-0 in the second. Then, she gradually put her game together.
'I don't feel too good with my tennis at the moment and I was very glad to win. I am not feeling at all confident,' Graf said after the 93-minute match.
Fairbank ended the British challenge at the tournament with her victory over Durie.
It was a match of short, poor-quality rallies, but the South African, who almost withdrew from the tournament two weeks ago because her form was so poor, believes she could upset Graf in the semis.
'I have nothing to lose,' she said. 'I am playing well and she is not playing at her peak. Maybe I can win.'
Fairbank won't be able to afford the generosity she showed Durie by throwing away the first set from 4-2 up. 'I thought I should have won that set and was so angry and frustrated that it helped me a lot in the next two sets,' she said.
She took advantage of Durie's tentative play in the second set and her unforced errors after 2-2 in the deciding contest to end her run of four defeats against the Briton.
