Tennis Roundup : Goldie Makes Connors Earn Victory

Second-seeded Jimmy Connors scrambled to fight off a challenge from NCAA champion Dan Goldie, winning his first-round match, 6-1, 7-6, Wednesday night in the $289,000 Transamerica Open tennis tournament at San Francisco.

Fourth-seeded John McEnroe defeated Broderick Dyke of Australia in a later first-round match, 6-2, 6-2.

Earlier, Jim Grabb upset eighth-seeded Christo Steyn of South Africa, 6-4, 6-4, and Peter Lungren of Sweden ousted seventh-seeded Ramesh Krishnan of India, 6-4, 6-1, as both winners moved into the quarterfinals.

After beating former Stanford star Goldie, Connors said he enjoys playing young players because “it’s an incentive to run.

“I’m not dead yet. I do have some desire left.”

Goldie, a wild-card entrant from McLean, Va., was admittedly nervous in the first set as Connors’ superior firepower buried him. Then Goldie settled down and played well to force the second-set tiebreaker.

Connors missed only one shot in winning the tiebreaker, 7-2, and Goldie lost his battle of nerves by double-faulting on match point.

Ecuador’s Andres Gomez, seeded fourth, and France’s Thierry Tulasne, seeded fifth, were eliminated in the second round of the $225,000 Conde de Godo tournament at Barcelona, Spain.

Javier Sanchez Vicario of Spain defeated Gomez, 6-4, 6-4, while Damir Keretic of West Germany beat Tulasne, 6-4, 6-3.

Casio Motta of Brazil downed seventh-seeded Martin Jaite of Argentina, 6-2, 6-2.

In other second-round matches, 11th-seeded Ulf Stenlund of Sweden, 12th-seeded Paolo Cane of Italy and 14th-seeded Karel Novacek of Czechoslovakia also were eliminated. Horst Skoff of Austria defeated Stenlund, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3; Tarik Benhabiles of France beat Cane, 6-4, 6-1, and David de Miguel of Spain downed Novacek, 6-4, 6-3.