Nystrom Stuns McEnroe at Dallas; Wilander Is Beaten

Joakim Nystrom of Sweden, playing the best tennis of his life against the world’s No. 1 player, ousted defending champion John McEnroe, 6-4, 7-6, 6-3, Thursday night in the $500,000 World Championship of Tennis finals at Dallas.

Nystrom, 22, set up a semifinal meeting Saturday with Tim Mayotte, who upset fourth-seeded Mats Wilander of Sweden, 6-3, 6-1, 7-6.

Nystrom, ranked No. 12 in the world and seeded 10th in the WCT finals, broke McEnroe’s service at love in the fifth game and, before taking the first set, had McEnroe shaking his head and tossing his racket in disgust.

Nystrom fought off four set points to get into the second-set tiebreaker, which he won, 7-5, with some brilliant, cross-court backhand winners. By now, McEnroe was lecturing himself, the crowd and a line judge who called a foot fault on him.

The third set began with the pro-McEnroe crowd urging the four-time WCT Finals champion to dispatch the young upstart.

However, McEnroe double-faulted away his service in the second game, and someone from the crowd yelled: “Come on, John, what’s the deal?”

McEnroe finally broke through against Nystrom’s accurate serve in the fourth game but gave it right back in the fifth to the youngster who was making his first WCT Finals appearance. Nystrom then served out to win the match.

In tonight’s quarterfinal matches, second-seeded Jimmy Connors will play Aaron Krickstein and third-seeded Ivan Lendl of Czechoslovakia will meet Stefan Edberg of Sweden.

Defending champion Chris Evert Lloyd escaped being part of a string of upsets by trouncing Pam Casale, 6-1, 6-4, in the second round of the $200,000 Family Circle Cup at Hilton Head, S.C.

Second-seeded Manuela Maleeva of Bulgaria defeated Carina Carlsson of Sweden, 6-2, 6-2, but third-seeded Claudia Kohde-Kilsch of West Germany, fifth-seeded Zina Garrison and sixth-seeded Carling Bassett of Canada all lost to unseeded opponents.

Garrison fell to 14-year-old Argentine Gabriella Sabatina, 7-5, 6-3; Kohde-Kilsch lost to Petra Huber of Austria, 6-1, 5-7, 6-4, and Bassett was upset by Virginia Ruzici of Romania, 6-1, 6-2, 6-3.