Tennis Roundup : Mecir, Following Big Win, Advances in Japan Open

Miloslav Mecir of Czechoslovakia, continuing to play at the top of his game, defeated Tsuyoshi Fukui of Japan, 7-5, 6-1, Wednesday to reach the third round of the $605,000 Japan Open tennis tournament at Tokyo.

Mecir, ranked fifth in the world, beat John McEnroe to win the World Championship Tennis Finals last weekend at Dallas. McEnroe withdrew from this tournament because of leg and hip injuries.

In other men’s matches, Kevin Curren beat Bud Cox, 6-2, 6-4; Johan Kriek beat Blaine Willenborg, 6-3, 6-1; Bill Scanlon beat Milan Srejber of Czechoslovakia, 4-6, 7-6, 7-6; Ramesh Krishnan of India beat Ben Testerman, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4; Matt Anger beat Toru Yonezawa of Japan, 6-1, 6-0, and Dan Goldie beat Glenn Michibata of Canada, 6-4, 6-2.

In the women’s singles, it was top-seeded Melissa Gurney over Lea Antonoplis, 6-1, 6-2; second-seeded Katerina Maleeva of Bulgaria over Cammy MacGregor, 7-5, 6-3; Etsuko Inoue of Japan over Akiko Kijimuta, also of Japan, 6-1, 6-2; third-seeded Kathy Jordan over Christiane Jolissaint of Switzerland, 6-1, 6-4; Barbara Gerken over Anne Minter of Australia, 3-6, 6-1, 6-3; Betsy Nagelsen over Pascale Paradis of France, 6-1, 6-0, and Kumiko Okamoto of Japan over Sharon Walsh-Pate, 6-3, 6-4.

After battling for more than two hours late the night before, top-seeded Kent Carlsson of Sweden needed just 15 minutes to finish off Jim Pugh, 2-6, 6-4, 9-7 and complete the first round of the $104,900 Grand Prix tournament at Nice, France.

The Carlsson-Pugh match was suspended by darkness at 6-6 in the third set. When the match resumed, both players held service before Carlsson broke Pugh at love in the third game and won the fourth to wrap up the match.

In other matches, Andrei Chesnokov of the Soviet Union defeated sixth-seeded Tarek Benhabiles of France, 6-4, 1-6, 6-2; third-seeded Martin Jaite of Argentina downed Eliot Teltscher, 6-4, 6-2, and second-seeded Emilio Sanchez of Spain routed Mel Purcell, 6-0, 6-1.

Marian Vajda of Czechoslovakia had his second straight match cut short when Diego Perez of Uruguay strained ligaments in his right ankle after the first set. Vajda survived the first round when Paul McNamee of Australia was unable to continue after pulling a calf muscle.

At Amelia Island, Fla., top-seeded Steffi Graf routed Bettina Fulco of Argentina, 6-0, 6-1, to earn a quarterfinal berth in the Women’s International Tennis Assn. tournament.

In second-round matches, seventh-seeded Manuela Maleeva of Bulgaria fought off early sluggishness and rallied past Hellas ter Riet of the Netherlands, 1-6, 6-1, 6-1; No. 12-seeded Mary Joe Fernandez defeated Mercedes Paz of Argentina, 6-4, 6-1; Carling Bassett of Canada downed Sandra Cecchini of Italy, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1; Monique Javer beat Marcella Mesker of the Netherlands, 6-3, 6-3 and Terry Phelps breezed past Angeliki Kannellopoulou of Greece, 6-2, 6-0.