French Open Tennis Championships : Wilander Avoids an Upset, but Edberg, Maleeva and Two Others Don’t

Defending champion Mats Wilander escaped an upset bid by Aaron Krickstein Thursday, a day on which four seeded players--two men and two women--tumbled from the French Open tennis championships.

“I was very lucky in the fifth set,” Wilander said after edging Krickstein, 6-1, 3-6, 5-7, 6-3, 6-4, in a four-hour slugfest on center court. The Swede, seeded second behind Ivan Lendl, converted his only break point of the decisive set; Krickstein failed to convert on six break points.

“Except for the stretch from 2-2 to 5-2 in the third set, he controlled the whole match,” Wilander admitted.

Stefan Edberg, seeded fifth, lost to fellow Swede Mikeal Pernfors, twice an NCAA champion at Georgia, 6-7, 7-5, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4, and Italy’s Claudio Panatta defeated No. 10-seeded Thierry Tulasne of France, 0-6, 3-6, 6-2, 6-4, 6-4. In women’s competition, Argentina’s Mercedes Paz ousted No. 8-seeded Manuela Maleeva of Bulgaria, 5-7, 7-6, 7-5, and Mary Joe Fernandez, a Miami high school freshman, eliminated No. 14-seeded Andrea Temesvari of Hungary, 5-7, 6-2, 6-3.

Fernandez, third-seeded Steffi Graf and No. 9-seeded Gabriela Sabatini joined Chris Evert Lloyd among the winners on the red clay courts of Roland Garros. Lloyd, the defending women’s champion and seeded No. 2 behind Martina Navratilova, advanced by crushing Anne Smith, 6-3, 6-1.

On Day 4 of this two-week tournament--a chilly, windy day during which rain briefly interrupted play--Graf defeated Marcella Mesker of the Netherlands, 6-2, 6-1; No. 5-seeded Hana Mandlikova stopped fellow Czech Regina Marsikova, 6-1, 6-2; Sabatini beat Ivanna Madruga-Osses of Argentina, 6-3, 6-3, and No. 13-seeded Carling Bassett of Canada eliminated Jenny Byrne of Australia, 6-3, 6-2.

In men’s play, third-seeded Boris Becker of West Germany, the reigning Wimbledon champion, ousted Bruno Oresar of Yugoslavia, 6-2, 6-0, 6-7, 6-3.

Wilander and Krickstein fired their best salvos in an almost perfect clay-court contest. It was Krickstein’s forehand, a thunderous shot that quickly found the far reaches of the court, against the quick Swede, who ran down shot after shot.

The turning point was almost unnoticed, coming as it did in the third game of the fourth set.

Krickstein, an 18-year-old right-hander from Grosse Point, Mich., led at 15-40 when he pulled Wilander way off the court with a shot. Somehow, Wilander got the ball but put up a weak lob that landed just over the net, giving Krickstein the entire court to just tap the ball for the vital break.

Instead, Krickstein netted the easy shot. When he hit a backhand wide on the next point, bringing the game to deuce, he threw his racket to the ground in disgust, a code-of-conduct violation. Two points later, Wilander had held serve.