Tennis Roundup : Navratilova, Evert Win With Ease

Martina Navratilova, seeking her first title of the year, and Chris Evert both advanced to the third round of the $200,000 Pilkington Glass grass court tournament at Eastbourne, England, with easy victories Tuesday.

Navratilova, who is seeded No. 1, routed Gretchen Rush-Magers, 6-1, 6-0, and Evert, who is seeded No. 2, defeated Lisa Bonder, 6-1, 6-1.

No. 3-seeded Helena Sukova of Czechoslovakia also had an easy second-round match as she defeated Pam Casale, 6-2, 6-1. However, No. 4-seeded Pam Shriver had a tougher time of it. Shriver had to rally for a 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 victory over South Africa’s Elna Reinach.

No. 5 Gabriela Sabatini of Argentina defeated Hu Na, 6-4, 6-3, and No. 6 Bettina Bunge of West Germany outlasted 16-year-old Natalia Zvereva of the Soviet Union, 6-7, 6-0, 7-5.

Bunge, who is coming off a back injury, has played a total of 4 1/2 hours in winning two matches in the tournament. Bunge had sat out the recent German and French championships and last week’s grass court tournament at Birmingham, England.

Robin White, Sweden’s Catarina Lindqvist, the Soviet Union’s Larissa Savchenko and Australians Elizabeth Smylie and Diane Balestrat were the other seeded players who won Tuesday.

Italy’s Raffaella Reggi, seeded No. 11, squandered a set lead and was upset by Wendy White, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. Reggi’s defeat left 11 of the 16 seeded players still in contention.

Patrick McEnroe, the younger brother of John, lost his chance of entering the men’s singles field at Wimbledon when he lost to Rick Leach, 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 in a qualifying tournament.

John McEnroe announced Monday that he would not play at Wimbledon because of a bad back.