Tennis Roundup : Cash Advances at Sydney With Win Over Evernden, Despite an Injured Knee

Wimbledon champion Pat Cash of Australia overpowered Kelly Evernden of New Zealand, 6-3, 7-6, Tuesday in the opening round of the $345,000 Australian Indoor tennis championships at Sydney.

The third-seeded Cash, who is recovering from a knee injury, took 1 hour 55 minutes to defeat Evernden, winner of last week’s Queensland Open in Brisbane.

“I decided to forget about the knee and just go for it,” Cash said. “I felt I hit the ball well tonight. Kelly really came for me in the second (set), but I was not going to let him in.”

Fourth-seeded Slobodan Zivojinovic of Yugoslavia and seventh-seeded Ramesh Krishnan of India also won first-round matches, while Shane Barr, 17, of Australia, ranked 456th in the world, upset sixth-seeded countryman Wally Masur, 6-2, 6-3. Masur is ranked 35th.

Zivojinovic beat Tony Mmoh of Nigeria, 4-6, 6-3, 6-1, and Krishnan ousted Mike DePalmer, 7-6, 7-6.

“I felt like sleeping for two days when my flight from Frankfurt touched down in Sydney,” Zivojinovic said. “I couldn’t believe it when they told me I was playing so soon. It would have been easy to lose. The win shows I am really into tennis now.”

Top-seeded Ivan Lendl is scheduled to play his first-round match against Australian Peter Doohan tonight.

Defending champion Boris Becker of West Germany also plays in singles for the first time when he meets Tim Pawsat, who is from Santa Ana and played at USC.

At Stuttgart, West Germany, Martina Navratilova defeated Rosalyn Fairbank of South Africa, 6-1, 6-4, in the first round of a $175,000 Virginia Slims tournament.

In other matches, Pam Shriver defeated Claudia Porwik of West Germany, 6-3, 6-2; Zina Garrison beat Elise Burgin, 6-3, 6-3; Bettina Bunge eliminated Isabel Cueto of West Germany, 7-5, 7-5, and Silke Meier of West Germany defeated Catherine Tanvier of France, 6-3, 4-6, 6-0.

Chris Evert will open play in a second-round match today.

At Toulouse, France, second-seeded Emilio Sanchez of Spain was eliminated in the first round of a $202,500 tournament by Luis Mattar of Brazil, 6-4, 6-4.

Sanchez is ranked 16th in the world; Mattar is 71st.