Tennis Roundup : Mayotte Has His Cake, Too

Tim Mayotte celebrated his 27th birthday Monday with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 victory over Todd Witsken to open the $315,000 Volvo International tennis tournament at Stratton Mountain, Vt.

A chocolate cake was given to Mayotte on the court after his victory.

Today, No. 1-seeded Ivan Lendl, No. 2 Jimmy Connors, No. 3 Pat Cash of Australia and No. 4 John McEnroe play their first-round matches.

Lendl, the defending champion, will play Marc Flur, and Connors takes on Greg Holmes. Cash, the 1987 Wimbledon champion, meets New Zealand’s Kelly Evernden, and McEnroe plays Jonathan Canter.

The Volvo International could be the first time Lendl and Cash meet since Wimbledon.

After Mayotte lost the second set to Witsken, he floundered in the third set, taking the first game before dropping the next three. Mayotte won the fifth game, but, frustrated with his play, slammed his racket to the court after losing the next point.

Mayotte found his rhythm, however, and won 15 straight points to go ahead, 5-3. He double-faulted at double match point before Witsken hit the next shot into the net.

“I got a little commonplace and expected him to miss instead of picking up my own shots,” Mayotte said of the third set. “At the point where I slammed down my racket, it helped me get motivated and get my juices flowing. I just started going for my shots and got motivated.”

“In the second set, I lost my focus a little bit,” Mayotte said. “I didn’t attack enough. I should have been coming in behind my shots.”

The match was Mayotte’s first since a week ago in Hartford, Conn., where he lost both of his singles matches in the Davis Cup relegation round to West Germans Boris Becker and Eric Jelen.

“I thought I played pretty good tennis down in Hartford,” Mayotte said. “(It was) certainly a disappointment, but I played pretty well and just hoped to improve on that.”

In the day’s only upset, Robert Seguso beat 16th-seeded Derrick Rostago, 6-4, 6-3.

Grace Kim defeated 10th-seeded Alycia Moulton, 6-2, 6-2, in the opening round of the $75,000 Virginia Slims of San Diego tournament, despite arriving without her luggage.

With her clothes somewhere between the Newark, N.J., airport and San Diego, Kim had only her racket when she arrived. But borrowing some clothes and buying others didn’t shake her performance as she ousted Moulton in the second upset of the day.

Earlier, Kathleen Horvath topped 14th-seeded Michelle Torres, 6-3, 6-2.

“I didn’t play extremely well, but I did play smartly,” Kim said. “I took my time and placed my shots very well. I was able to concentrate on each point.”

Hendrik Sundstrom of Sweden and Christian Miniussi of Argentina were among players who won first-round matches in a $250,000 Nabisco Grand Prix tournament at Kitzbuhel, Austria.

But 14th-seeded Paolo Cane of Italy was a casualty of the opening day’s play, losing to Pavel Vojtisek of West Germany, 6-4, 6-3.

Sundstrom defeated Paul McNamee of Australia, 1-6, 6-4, 7-6, while Miniussi defeated Mark Buckley of Petersburg, Va., 6-1, 6-3.