Noah Rallies to Beat Mayer in Tiebreaker

Fifth-seeded Yannick Noah survived four match points to reach the third round of the $300,000 U.S. Pro Indoor Tennis Championship with a 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 victory over Sandy Mayer of Atherton, Calif., Tuesday night at Philadelphia.

Noah, out four months with a back injury, rallied from 2-5 in the third set, fought off one match point at 3-5, two more at 4-5 and one more at 5-6 before tying at 6-all.

Mayer led, 5-4, in the tiebreaker before Noah came back to reach match point at 6-5 and then send a backhand shot into the net. That made it 6-6.

Mayer double-faulted to put Noah at match point, 7-6, and Noah won, 8-6, with a backhand volley.

The 15th- and 16th-seeded players, John Sadri of North Carolina and David Pate of Las Vegas, lost. Sadri was beaten by Tim Mayotte of Springfield, Mass., 6-3, 6-4. Pate yielded to Joao Soares of Campinas, Brazil, 6-3, 7-6. Soares fought off four set points at 6-5 in winning the match.

Third-seeded Wendy Turnbull rallied to defeat Grace Kim, 6-2, 3-6, 6-2, in the second round of a $150,000 tennis tournament at Key Biscayne, Fla. Extremely cold weather forced postponement of night matches for the second day.