Coetzer Rips Graf

South African Amanda Coetzer handed former world No. 1 Steffi Graf the worst beating of her career, a 6-0, 6-1 thrashing - in just 56 minutes - in a quarterfinal of the German Open in Berlin.

Graf, returning from a three-month layoff due to a knee injury, was unable to win a game until she trailed 4-0 in the second set.

Graf’s previous worst loss came at the 1991 French Open, when Spain’s Arantxa Sanchez Vicario beat her 6-0, 6-2 in the semifinals.

Coetzer, ranked 10th in the world, plays France’s Mary Pierce, who needed six match points to beat sixth-seeded Croatian Iva Majoli, 6-1, 6-4.

Second-seeded Jana Novotna also reached the semifinals by ousting unseeded Sabine Appelmans of Belgium, 1-6, 6-2, 6-0 and will face Mary Joe Fernandez.

Marcelo Rios toppled Jim Courier in a three-set thriller to reach the Italian Open semifinals in Rome.

Rios, a 21-year-old Chilean, who has risen to No. 9 in the world, prevailed 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (7-4) in 2-1/2 hours and will face unseeded Spaniard Alberto Berasategui, who eased past Germany’s Marc-Kevin Goellner 7-5, 7-5.

Mats Wilander says he used cocaine unknowingly during the 1995 French Open. Mats Garle, head of Huddinge hospital’s IOC-approved doping lab, doesn’t believe the former world No. 1 tennis player.