Tennis Roundup : McEnroe and Noah Reach Quarterfinals in Belgium

John McEnroe defeated Jimmy Brown, 7-5, 6-2, Thursday at Antwerp, Belgium, to join Thomas Muster of Austria, Horacio de la Pena of Argentina and Yannick Noah of France in the quarterfinals of the $920,000 European Community Championships, the world’s richest indoor tennis tournament.

Muster defeated Brad Gilbert, 6-3, 6-7, 6-4; De la Pena edged Emilio Sanchez of Spain, 6-4, 7-6, and Noah ousted Wojtek Fibak of Poland, 6-3, 7-5.

After taking a 4-1 lead over Brown, McEnroe lost his rhythm in the sixth game of the first set and dropped 10 consecutive points, including two double-faults, to let Brown rally at 5-5.

Then, regaining his composure, McEnroe won the first set to take control.

In a rehearsal for next month’s Davis Cup final, No. 1-seeded Stefan Edberg of Sweden defeated Pat Cash of Australia, 7-6, 6-4, to reach the quarterfinals of the $435,000 Stockholm Open.

“We both played well today,” said Edberg, ranked No. 3 in the world. “It felt good to win this, our first-ever match, but I know it will be a lot tougher in the Davis Cup final.”

In another third-round match, qualifier Richard Matuszewski upset No. 8 Jacob Hlasek of Switzerland, 7-6, 6-1. Wednesday, Matuszewski had upset No. 10 Slobodan Zivojinovic of Yugoslavia, 6-2, 7-5.

In other matches, Gary Donnelly edged No. 7 Kevin Curren, 7-6, 3-6, 7-6; No. 2 Mats Wilander of Sweden defeated countryman Jan Gunnarsson, 7-5, 7-5; No. 13 Guy Forget of France beat Scott Davis, 6-1, 6-4; No. 3 Henri Leconte of France downed Sergio Casal of Spain, 6-4, 7-6, and No. 6 Tim Mayotte eliminated Ben Testerman, 7-5, 7-6.

Third-seeded Helena Sukova of Czechoslovakia and fourth-seeded Pam Shriver scored second-round victories in a $250,000 Virginia Slims tournament at Worcester, Mass. Sukova defeated Rosalyn Fairbank of South Africa, 7-5, 4-6, 6-3, while Shriver beat Katerina Maleeva of Bulgaria, 6-1, 7-5.