Tennis Roundup : Lendl Gets What He Asked For: a Defeat by Nystrom

It wasn’t what he wanted, but Ivan Lendl got what he asked for.

One day after the world’s No. 1 tennis player said he probably needed to lose a match before the French Open later this month, Joakim Nystrom of Sweden upset Lendl, 6-4, 2-6, 6-3, in the third round of the $495,000 Italian Open at Rome.

“I’ve never seen Ivan miss as many forehands as he did today,” Nystrom said. “I didn’t have any pressure on me, especially because I was playing the No. 1 player and no one expects you to win.”

In other matches, second-seeded Mats Wilander of Sweden defeated Cassio Motta of Brazil, 6-3, 6-2; seventh-seeded Andres Gomez of Ecuador beat Mikael Pernfors of Sweden, 6-2, 6-3; sixth-seeded John McEnroe rallied to beat Aaron Krickstein, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5, and eighth-seeded Kent Carlsson of Sweden beat 10th-seeded Emilio Sanchez of Spain, 6-2, 4-6, 6-1. Henri Leconte of France retired with back trouble while trailing Martin Jaite of Argentina, 6-2, 2-0.

Top-seeded Steffi Graf of West Germany defeated Claudia Porwik, 6-0, 6-1, in the third round of the $150,000 West German Open at Berlin for her 29th straight victory.

Graf needed just 34 minutes to beat Porwik, also of West Germany.

In other matches, sixth-seeded Rafaella Reggi of Italy breezed past Jana Novotna of Czechoslovakia, 6-2, 6-2; third-seeded Claudia Kohde-Kilsch of West Germany defeated Laura Gildermeister of Peru, 6-4, 7-6; 17-year-old Australian Nicole Provis upset eighth-seeded Jo Durie of Britain, 6-1, 4-6, 6-4; and Nathalie Tauziat of France overcame Iva Budarova of Czechoslovakia, 4-6, 7-6, 6-3.