Tennis : Lendl Has Easy Time in Opener

Ivan Lendl, Stefan Edberg and Steffi Graf were interrupted by rain Tuesday but eased into the second round of the $1.8-million Lipton International tennis championships.

Lendl, seeded No. 1, was playing his first tournament since losing to Pat Cash in the Australian Open semifinals a month ago. He took 88 minutes to defeat Ricardo Acuna of Chile, 6-2, 6-3, 6-2.

No. 2 Edberg rolled by fellow Swede Peter Carlsson, 6-3, 6-3, 6-2. Graf, the women’s No. 3-seeded player from West Germany, required 48 minutes to defeat Manon Bollegraf of the Netherlands, 6-1, 6-1.

Rain washed out the night matches involving No. 1 Martina Navratilova, No. 6 Helena Sukova and No. 4 Yannick Noah.

In other first-round matches, No. 5 Mats Wilander routed Jonny Levine, 6-1, 6-2, 6-4; Wally Masur upset No. 13 Emilio Sanchez of Spain, 6-2, 6-7, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4. No. 11 Mikael Pernfors of Sweden had his match against Marcel Freeman suspended after four sets because of darkness.

No. 7 Zina Garrison also advanced, defeating Kristin Kinney, 6-4, 6-1.

Lendl, whose match was interrupted 30 minutes because of rain, said the layoff from tournament tennis did not bother him.

“To tell the truth, I had a better time being home,” said the world’s No. 1 player. “It (the match) was different than practice. I played two exhibitions and two charity matches, so that’s something like an actual match, although it’s not the same as a tournament. I need a little bit of an off-season sometime.”

Edberg, who took an overnight flight after losing in the final at Indian Wells, Calif., to Boris Becker, said he was glad to end his match quickly.

“I felt tired because of the long trip,” he said. “But I worked hard for it and won it, and that’s what counts. In this case, I’d rather have an easy (match), because I’ve been playing a lot lately. . . . If I can get through the first few matches, I think I’ll be OK. I like to play a lot.”

Said Wilander: “It’s always a relief to get through the first match. It’s always tough. The first round is very difficult in a tournament like this and you want to have the easiest match possible.”