Australian Open Tennis Championships : Lloyd Gives a One-Hour Lesson to Balestrat, 6-4, 6-1

Defending champion Chris Evert Lloyd beat unseeded Dianne Balestrat, 6-4, 6-1, today to move a step closer to her third Australian Open tennis title.

In winning, the top-seeded Lloyd advanced to the fourth round of the $1.5-million tournament, where she will meet seventh-seeded Manuela Maleeva of Bulgaria Tuesday.

Clay-court specialist Maleeva maintained her unbeaten professional record against her sister, Katerina Maleeva, with a 6-2, 6-1 victory. It was 18-year-old Manuela’s third straight win over her 16-year-old sister.

In men’s early matches today, Frenchman Henri Leconte, the 13th-seeded player, defeated John Sadri, 7-6, 6-3, 7-6; Christo Steyn of South Africa eliminated Brad Gilbert, who was seeded 10th, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4, 7-5, and Tim Gullikson ousted Australia’s Darren Cahill, 6-4, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.

Second-seeded Martina Navratilova overwhelmed 16-year-old Australian Nicole Provis, 6-2, 6-1, in a lopsided second-round match, and Wendy Turnbull went into the third round Saturday with a 6-0, 6-0 victory over fellow Australian Elizabeth Smylie.

Czechoslovakia’s Hana Mandlikova defeated 1977 Wimbledon champion Virginia Wade of Britain, 6-2, 7-6, in another second-round match.

Lloyd was in fine form, winning her match in 60 minutes in front of a packed center court crowd basking in 78-degree heat.

Lloyd said the bright sunshine had helped her lift her game.

“I think if the sun is out, its more conducive to going out and moving around,” she said. “I felt I was hitting the ball hard and getting a lot of winners. That meant I made some errors, too, but at this stage I feel I need to go for my shots.”

In a later match, fifth-seeded Claudia Kohde-Kilsch of West Germany advanced with a hard-fought 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 victory over another serve-and-volley expert, 13th-seeded Jo Durie of Great Britain.

Durie got the only service break of serve in the first set, but was then overwhelmed as Kohde-Kilsch served and returned with power and accuracy.

The 22-year-old West German reeled off the last four games of the final set as Durie’s confidence crumbled.

Kohde-Kilsch’s victory reversed a defeat she suffered against Durie this year at Wimbledon.

Pam Shriver had little more than a workout when she raced into the third round with a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Australian Rebecca Bryant of Canberra in a match postponed from Friday when Bryant became ill.

Johan Kriek overpowered Australia’s Peter Doohan, 7-5, 6-4, 6-0, in a heated third-round men’s singles match.

Both players slipped and fell several times on the slippery center court, described Friday by John McEnroe as the worst grass court in the world.

“The less said about that court the better,” said Kriek, who won the title here in 1981 and 1982.

Doohan and Kriek exchanged bitter words as each tried to put the other off his game with fast-serving and stalling tactics.

“I don’t hate him and I don’t think he hates me . . . it’s just that he tried to quick serve me several times, and I asked him to hang on as I was not ready. That’s when he blew up,” Kriek said. “He was so anxious to fast-serve me, they foot-faulted him twice.”