Tennis Roundup : Turnbull Uses Shrewd Tactics to Beat Werdel

Australian Wendy Turnbull, playing a shrewd tactical game, defeated Marianne Werdel of Bakersfield, 6-2, 6-4, Thursday to advance to the third round of a $150,000 Virginia Slims tournament at New Orleans.

Turnbull, seeded fifth, placed her shots carefully, firing low to force the 5-foot-10 Werdel to bend and reach.

“She’s a big girl, so naturally she’s not going to want to bend for her shots,” said Turnbull, who had watched her opponent in practice. She said she planned to mix the game and keep the ball low.

“I used more of a tactical game to beat her,” Turnbull said.

Werdel acknowledged Turnbull forced her away from her own game.

“I don’t think it’s the best that I’ve played, but I like high balls and she never gave me a ball to hit that was above my waist,” Werdel said. “I have to give her all the credit. She made me do things that I don’t like.”

In earlier matches, Kate Gompert upset seventh-seeded Robin White, 6-3, 6-2, and Laura Gildemeister needed a tiebreaker to defeat Anne White, 7-6, 6-1.

Top-seeded Ulf Stenlund of Sweden posted to another easy victory at Palermo, Sicily, but second-seeded Paolo Cane of Italy was upset in the second round of the $117,000 Sicilian championships.

Stenlund, ranked No. 32 in the world, scored a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Francisco Yunis, one of two Argentines to lose Thursday at the Palermo Tennis Club.

Mark Dickson, seeded eighth, eliminated the other Argentine, Roberto Arguello, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6.

Cane, the Italian champion, was plagued by stomach troubles from food poisoning and put up little resistance against countryman Claudio Mezzadri, losing 6-2, 6-2.

Of 12 Italians who started in the tournament, 9 went out in the first two rounds. Of the survivors, Corrado Aprili will face Mezzadri in the quarterfinals, while Simone Colombo plays Ronald Agenor of Haiti. Aprili gained his spot in the round of eight by beating Richard Matuszewski, 7-6, 7-5.

In the remaining quarterfinals, Stenlund takes on Dickson, Colombo plays Jimmy Brown, and Agenor faces third-seeded Pablo Arraya of Peru.