Tennis Roundup : Robin White Tops Mandlikova

Robin White upset U.S. Open champion Hana Mandlikova of Czechoslovakia, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, Wednesday to move into the quarterfinals of a women’s grass court tournament at Eastbourne, England.

Mandlikova said the defeat doesn’t damage her chances at Wimbledon, which starts next week. She will be seeded third.

“I’m still very confident, even after today. I had a terrible serve and I missed volleys I wouldn’t have usually.”

White, 22, of San Jose, said she was “hoping, but not super-confident,” before the match.

“When you play a top player, you tend to get a little bit nervous,” she said. “But I thought, the heck with it.”

The two traded service breaks in the sixth and seventh games of the second set before White broke the second-seeded player again in the 12th game to pull even at one set each. In the third set, White took a 4-2 lead, then after dropping her service, took the next two games to close out the victory.

Also advancing were defending champion Martina Navratilova, third-seeded Claudia Kohde-Kilsch of West Germany, fifth-seeded Helena Sukova of Czechoslovakia and sixth-seeded Zina Garrison.

Top-seeded Navratilova stopped Dianne Balestrat of Australia, 6-4, 6-2; Kohde-Kilsch downed Svetlana Parkhomenko of the Soviet Union, 6-4, 6-1; Sukova beat Anne Hobbs of Britain, 6-4, 6-1, and Garrison defeated Gigi Fernandez of Puerto Rico, 6-3, 6-2.

France’s Henri Leconte beat Mike Leach, 6-3, 6-4, and Vijay Amritraj of India defeated countryman Ramesh Krishnan, 6-4, 6-3, in the third round of a $126,000 Grand Prix tournament at Bristol, England.