TENNIS ROUNDUP : Sabatini, Martinez Make Final

Gabriela Sabatini and Conchita Martinez should be comfortable with the surroundings when they play in today’s final of the Family Circle Magazine Cup.

Sabatini, who beat Brenda Schultz, 6-3, 6-2, in Saturday’s semifinals, is the defending champion and a four-time finalist in the Hilton Head Island, S.C., tournament. Martinez, who defeated fellow Spaniard Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, 6-4, 7-5, is in the final of her third consecutive tournament.

Sabatini used patience against the hard-serving Schultz to advance. Sabatini focused on returning the serves and waiting for Schultz to make mistakes on the clay courts.

Schultz obliged, particularly when forced to go to her inconsistent backhand. Despite her power, Schultz, ranked 30th in the world, had problems holding serve. She was broken by No. 3 Sabatini three times in each set.

Martinez and Sanchez Vicario had long exchanges from the baseline, each waiting for the other to make a mistake. Martinez obliged first in both sets, but then rallied from a break down in the first set and two breaks down in the second set.

Unseeded Carlos Costa of Spain defeated second-seeded Emilio Sanchez of Spain, 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-5), in the semifinals of the Estoril Open at Lisbon.

Defending champion Sergi Bruguera, also of Spain, breezed past countryman Jordi Arrese, 6-1, 6-1 in the other semifinal.

Costa also upset sixth-seeded Goran Prpic of Croatia, Andres Gomez of Ecuador and Horacio de la Pena of Argentina in gaining the final.

Aaron Krickstein and top-seeded Alexander Volkov won rain-delayed quarterfinal and semifinal matches to reach the South African Open final at Johannesburg.

Krickstein, seeded fourth, started the day by completing a 6-2, 6-2 victory over South Africa’s Gary Muller in a match suspended Friday. He then beat Canadian Chris Pridham, 6-3, 6-4, to set up a championship match today against Volkov.

The Russian dispatched third-seeded Wayne Ferreira of South Africa, 6-4, 7-6 (7-3), after defeating unseeded Carl Limberger of Australia, 6-3, 6-0, in another match that was postponed Friday because of rain.