French Open Tennis : McEnroe, Wilander Advance; Lloyd Gains, but Sukova, Garrison Upset
Top-seeded John McEnroe easily won his second-round match, but the women’s singles field at the French Open tennis championships lost three seeded players Wednesday, including No. 5 Helena Sukova and No. 6 Zina Garrison.
Joining McEnroe in the third round of the men’s singles were fourth-seeded Mats Wilander of Sweden and No. 5 Andres Gomez of Ecuador.
Chris Evert Lloyd, the women’s second-seeded player, also progressed to the third round, but encountered the tough opposition she expected from fellow American Lisa Bonder.
Besides Sukova and Garrison, 16th-seeded Pam Casale of Fairfield, N.J., was ousted by Nathalie Tauziat of France, 6-7, 7-6, 6-2.
South Africa’s Rosalyn Fairbank eliminated Garrison, a right-hander from Houston, 7-6, 2-6, 13-11, in one of the hardest-fought matches so far on the slow, red clay courts of Roland Garros Stadium.
Sukova, the Czechoslovakian right-hander who upset Martina Navratilova in the Australian Open last December, fell to Switzerland’s Christiane Jolissaint, 2-6, 6-3, 6-0.
For the second time in his two matches, McEnroe downed a qualifier, Romania’s Florin Segarceaunu, winning, 6-2, 6-4, 6-4. Gomez eliminated Kent Carlsson of Sweden, 6-2, 6-4, 6-1, and Wilander crushed West Germany’s Boris Becker, 6-3, 6-2, 6-1.
Other seeded men to advance included No. 9 Yannick Noah of France, No. 13 Tomas Smid of Czechoslovakia and No. 12 Henrick Sundstrom of Sweden. Seeded women to post victories included No. 3 Hana Mandlikova of Czechoslovakia, No. 8 Carling Bassett of Canada, No. 11 Steffi Graf of West Germany and No. 14 Gabriela Sabatini of Argentina.
The center court was bathed in sunshine for the Wilander-Becker match. The 20-year-old Swede, who won the singles championship here in 1982 and has won the last two Australian Opens, was the veteran against the 17-year-old Becker, who tried to pit his powerful serve and aggressive style against Wilander’s patient baseline game.
Wilander crushed his young foe convincingly.
“I was lucky to win the very important points, and it was difficult for him then to get back,” Wilander said.
The Swede said his straight-set victories here over Becker and Thierry Tulasne of France were his best performances of the year.
Becker agreed.
“It was a kind of tennis lesson for me,” the German teen-ager said. “He made no mistakes.”
Bonder also made few errors in her second-round game against Lloyd, who won, 7-5, 6-3. Before the game, Lloyd anticipated a tough game because “Lisa gets everything back.”
More to Read
Go beyond the scoreboard
Get the latest on L.A.'s teams in the daily Sports Report newsletter.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.