Tennis Roundup : Purcell Upsets Becker in West Germany

Mel Purcell upset two-time Wimbledon champion Boris Becker, 7-5, 2-6, 7-6, in the second round of the $250,000 West German Open Wednesday at Hamburg, West Germany.

Purcell, a former All-American at the University of Tennessee who had to qualify for the clay-court tournament, ousted the top-seeded West German by patiently waiting for Becker to make errors.

“This is a special occasion for me, to have beaten the Wimbledon champion in his own country,” Purcell said. “After I wasted three match points, I just tried to keep the ball in play.”

Becker went up, 2-0, in the third set, but Purcell rallied with two service breaks and won the next four games.

Purcell, ranked 63rd in the world, was on the verge of victory, but Becker, No. 2 in the world, saved three match points at 4-5 in the third set. Purcell, of Murray, Ky., won the tiebreaker, 7-3.

In other matches, defending champion Miloslav Mecir of Czechoslovakia, seeded fourth, defeated Jan Gunnarsson of Sweden, 6-1, 6-1. Henri Leconte of France, the third-seeded player, disposed of Andreas Maurer of West Germany, 6-1, 6-3.

Michael Westphal of West Germany upset fifth-seeded Andres Gomez of Ecuador, 6-4, 6-4, and No. 2 Joakim Nystrom of Sweden defeated Luis Mattar of Brazil, 6-3, 1-6, 6-3.

Second-seeded Zina Garrison moved into the quarterfinals of the $125,000 Eckerd Open at Largo, Fla., with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over qualifier Pilar Vasquez of Peru.

Garrison, who defeated Pam Shriver to win the Du Pont All-American Championship last Sunday, has lost only seven games in her first two matches.

Two unseeded players who scored opening round upsets advanced. Elise Burgin outlasting Gretchen Rush, 7-5, 7-5, and Kate Gompert eliminating Ros Fairbank of South Africa, 6-2, 6-4.