Tennis : Lendl and Lloyd Escape Defeat; Shriver Loses Her First-Round Match

Ivan Lendl, the world’s No. 1 player, escaped a serving battle with John Sadri in the first round of the $1.8-million Lipton International Players Championships Tuesday at Boca Raton, Fla.

Lendl defeated Sadri, 6-2, 3-6, 7-6, winning the tiebreaker, 8-6.

“I’m definitely not pleased with the way I played,” Lendl said. “There’s the good and the bad. The good is I won; the bad is I didn’t play as good as I can.”

Earlier, Chris Evert Lloyd, the No. 1-seeded women’s player, beat 15-year-old Susan Sloane, 6-4, 6-4.

But Pam Shriver, seeded No. 3, wasn’t so lucky, losing to Kate Gompert in a night match, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4. Shriver led 4-1, 40-15 before falling apart in the last set.

“I’m still kind of in shock,” she said. “Maybe at 4-1 I assumed I had won it and I kind of let up. And she’s a scrappy player and she took advantage of it.”

Gompert, ranked 24th in the world, said: “All I remember is being down 4-1 in the third, and all of a sudden I won.”

Both No. 11-seeded players were also upset in night matches. Johan Kriek lost to Michiel Schapers of the Netherlands, 7-6, 4-6, 7-5, and Wendy Turnbull of Australia was beaten by Ros Fairbank of South Africa, 6-3, 6-4.

In another night match, No. 6 Yannick Noah of France held off Jay Berger, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.

But, Ricardo Acuna of Chile upset No. 12 Paul Annacone, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6, in an afternoon match.

In other matches, No. 9 Kevin Curren beat Martin Wostenholme of Canada, 6-4, 6-2, and No. 22 Matt Anger defeated Francisco Maciel of Mexico, 7-6, 6-1.