Tennis Roundup : Lendl, Becker Easily Gain Third Round; Vilas Loses

Ivan Lendl and Boris Becker, among the favorites in the Italian Open tennis championships, advanced to the third round with impressive victories Wednesday.

Lendl, seeded No. 1, defeated New Zealand’s Bruce Derlin, 6-2, 6-1, while Becker, seeded No. 3, overpowered Argentina’s Horacio de la Pena, 6-2, 6-3, on the clay courts of the Foro Italico.

Under clear skies and with the temperature reaching the high 80s, Lendl, a native Czech who lives in the United States, used his aggressive serve-and-volley game to beat Derlin in 62 minutes.

“I feel strong, I’m patient, I’m not going to beat myself,” Lendl said after his match. “I may lose this week, but I won’t do so for free. Someone is going to have to work very hard.”

Becker, the youngest player ever to win Wimbledon when he took the title last year at 17, said he was in good physical shape.

“I’m in much better shape now than I was last week when I had the flu. I knew I could run for two or three hours, so I wasn’t worried about dropping a service break,” the West German said.

Earlier, Argentina’s Guillermo Vilas was upset by Czechoslovakia’s Libor Pimek, 7-5, 6-3, and Switzerland’s Heinz Gunthardt, seeded No. 11, lost to Uruguay’s Diego Perez, 7-5, 6-2.

On an outside court, Sweden’s Joakim Nystrom, seeded No. 5, avenged three previous defeats by Eliot Teltscher, winning, 7-6, 6-1.

Later on the same court, Italy’s Paolo Cane survived two match points before edging Czechoslovakia’s Tomas Smid, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5. The victory earned Cane a third-round center-court match against Lendl.

At West Berlin, top-seeded Martina Navratilova and second-seeded Steffi Graf of West Germany advanced to the third round of the $150,000 women’s West German Open.

Navratilova, the women’s No. 1 player, defeated Elna Reinach of South Africa, 6-1, 6-3, while Graf routed Amy Holton, 6-1, 6-1.

Hana Mandlikova of Czechoslovakia reached the round of 16 by beating Louise Field of Australia, 6-4, 6-2.