Tennis Roundup : Becker Makes Successful Debut at Forest Hills

Making his first appearance at Forest Hills, Wimbledon champion Boris Becker lost the first two games, then swept eight in a row Tuesday to overpower Juan Aguilera, 6-2, 6-4, in the opening round of the $615,000 Shearson Lehman Tournament of Champions.

Becker, the tournament’s No. 2-seeded player, held up well on clay at the West Side Tennis Club as temperatures reached 92 degrees.

“Basically, I’m pretty well satisfied with the way I played,” said the 18-year-old West German, whose game is more suited to fast surfaces. “It was my first match on clay this year. I was very pleased with my serve today.” He wound up with six aces.

Aguilera won the first two games, breaking Becker in the second game. But that was the last hurrah for the Spaniard.

While Becker needed a mere 79 minutes to stop Aguilera, No. 4-seeded Yannick Noah of France brushed aside Sweden’s Jan Gunnarsson, 6-1, 6-1, in only 54 minutes.

Also advancing were No. 3-seeded Joakim Nystrom of Sweden, No. 6 Brad Gilbert, No. 7 Thierry Tulasne of France, No. 8 Andres Gomez of Ecuador and No. 10 Jimmy Arias. Nystrom defeated Larry Stefanki, 6-2, 6-2; Gilbert beat Bud Schultz, 7-5, 6-1; Tulasne ousted West Germany’s Michael Westphal, 7-5, 7-6; Gomez stopped Italy’s Claudio Panatta, 6-4, 7-5, and Arias outlasted Czechoslovakia’s Pavel Slozil, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.

Although Czechoslovakia’s Ivan Lendl played a Tuesday night match, he did not join them. The world’s No. 1 player was leading Italy’s Francesco Cancellotti, 6-3, 2-2, when their match was halted because of heavy rains.

At Houston, top-seeded Chris Evert Lloyd routed Anne Smith, 6-0, 6-2, in a $150,000 Virginia Slims tournament.

“Considering I had three weeks off, I played pretty well,” Lloyd said. “You’re always afraid you’ll lose the match toughness. I didn’t feel rusty at all and that was what I was really worried about.”

Earlier at the Westside Tennis Center, second-seeded Kathy Rinaldi defeated Candy Reynolds, 6-1, 7-5, and eighth-seeded Alise Burgin beat Lori McNeil, 6-2, 3-6 6-2.

Southern Illinois Edwardsville won two of three doubles matches to beat top-seeded Cal State Northridge, 5-4, for the NCAA Division II women’s team championship at Northridge.

SIU Edwardsville ended the season with a 19-7 record. Cal State Northridge finished at 28-2.

The individual singles and doubles tournaments will begin today at Northridge and will continue through Saturday.