Tennis Roundup : Tulasne Is Novacek’s Final Upset Victim

Czechoslovakia’s Karel Novacek capped an improbable week Sunday by shocking France’s Thierry Tulasne in straight sets to win the $220,000 D.C. tournament at Washington.

Novacek, 21, ranked 110th in the world, entered the tournament never having reached the quarterfinals of a major Grand Prix event.

But his 6-1, 7-6 victory over the second-seeded Tulasne climaxed a stretch of seven days in which the 21 year old defeated five seeded players, including top-seeded Andres Gomez in the semifinals.

Novacek, who had not gotten past the opening round in his five previous tournaments, breezed through the first set and never trailed in the tiebreaker after winning the first three points.

He ended the match with a simple drop shot at the net as Tulasne watched helplessly.

Tulasne, ranked 15th in the world, was trying for his first tournament championship since March.

Novacek received $37,400 for the victory and Tulasne collected $18,700 as the runner-up. Entering the tournament, Novacek’s career earnings were only $48,513.

Unseeded Melissa Gurney, recording her fourth straight upset, beat second-seeded Stephanie Rehe, 6-2, 6-4, for the championship of a $75,000 Virginia Slims tournament at the San Diego Hilton Beach & Tennis Resort.

Gurney, 17, of Palos Verdes, earned $13,000, while Rehe, 16, of Highland, Calif., collected $6,400.

The title match marked the first professional meeting between the childhood rivals, who played each other at least 30 times in junior tournaments. In their last meeting, Gurney won the 1984 national juniors championship.

Typical of her play in the earlier rounds, Gurney, ranked 73rd in the world, relied on baseline play to break Rehe’s service six of 10 times, including the first three times to help take a 5-1 lead in the opening set.

Rehe, ranked 16th, hit another low point at the start of the second set, when she lost her first two service games in straight points, all on unforced errors. From a 4-0 deficit, she recovered to tie the score, 4-4, but couldn’t push Gurney to a third set.

“I just made too many errors,” Rehe said.

This was the second straight tournament victory for Gurney, who won in Berkeley last week.

Tim Mayotte celebrated his 26th birthday by breezing past Paul Annacone, 6-2, 6-3, in the Paine Webber Invitational to win the $25,000 first-prize check.

Mayotte advanced to the final of the $125,000 tournament at Beaver Creek Resort near Vail, Colo., by defeating defending champion Jimmy Connors on Saturday.

Austria’s Thomas Muster, 18, won his first Grand Prix event with a 6-1, 6-3, 6-3 victory over Switzerland’s Jakob Hlasek in a $100,000 tournament at Hilversum, the Netherlands.

A capacity crowd of 3,500 saw Muster, seeded seventh, subdue the third-seeded Hlasek in 1 hour 20 minutes to win the $20,000 first prize.