Tennis : A Gusting Wind Carries Leach Past Wilander Into the Quarterfinals

Second-seeded Mats Wilander was swept out of the $1.8 million Lipton International Players Championships in brisk, swirling winds Monday, losing to Mike Leach, 7-5, 6-2.

The stunning victory took Leach, the 1982 NCAA singles champion from the University of Michigan, into the quarterfinals.

“It’s beginning to turn into a dream,” Leach said after the win, which came one day after he had upset 10th-seeded Jimmy Arias.

“The wind was terrible, but he got hurt more by it. I have a short ball toss. If it was a calmer day, obviously it would be a reverse score.

“At 5-1 in the second set, I was still going for it,” Leach said. “He’s dangerous. He’s a Swede.

“That tells it all.”

The 17 m.p.h. wind, gusting at times to 23 m.p.h., affected all the matches. But it made Leach’s booming serve that much more effective.

“In the first set I had a chance for a break to 6-all, but he aced me three times,” Wilander said. “There’s nothing you can do about that.”

Wilander’s Swedish Davis Cup teammate, Anders Jarryd, was also ousted Monday. Jarryd, seeded fourth, lost to 11th-seeded Tomas Smid of Czechoslovakia, 6-1, 6-4, in another fourth-round match.

In women’s play, 13th-seeded Andrea Temesvari of Hungary shocked third-seeded Wendy Turnbull of Australia, 6-4, 6-3.

Rain halted play in the afternoon with top-seeded Ivan Lendl of Czechoslovakia down a set in his fourth-round match with yet another Swede, 13th-seeded Stefan Edberg. After losing the first set ,4-6, Lendl was leading, 6-5, in the second, with the two on serve.

Tournament officials waited more than 2 1/2 hours before calling off play for the remainder of the day.

Also advancing into the men’s quarterfinals before the rain began were 12th-seeded Vitas Gerulaitis and two unseeded players--Scott Davis and Sweden’s Jan Gunnarsson.

Gerulaitis defeated Tarik Benhabiles of France, 6-3, 7-5; Davis eliminated Marc Flur, 6-4, 6-2, and Gunnarsson beat Brod Dyke of Australia, 6-2, 2-6, 6-3.

In another men’s fourth-round match, Tim Mayotte held a 1-0 first-set lead over Greg Holmes. Yannick Noah of France, seeded ninth, had his night match against Sammy Giammalva postponed.

Steffi Graf of West Germany moved into the quarterfinals when Kathy Rinaldi was forced to retire in the second set with a strained muscle in her left thigh.