Tennis Roundup : Leconte Is Good, but Lendl Better

Henri Leconte was more spectacular but he couldn’t match Ivan Lendl’s consistency.

Lendl outlasted the Frenchman, 6-4, 7-6, Thursday to reach the quarterfinals of the $923,000 European Community Championships at Antwerp, Belgium.

“I had so many chances but I didn’t play smart,” said Lendl, the No. 1 tennis player in the world.

In other matches, second-seeded Mats Wilander of Sweden downed Jonas Svensson, also of Sweden, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6; Wimbledon champion Pat Cash of Australia beat Sergio Casal of Spain, 7-6, 6-2, and John McEnroe defeated Martin Jaite of Argentina, 6-4, 6-4.

In the tiebreaker, Leconte took a 2-0 lead, but Lendl won six straight points and ended it at 7-4.

McEnroe, on a two-month suspension that allows him to play only in exhibition tournaments such as the ECC, needed 90 minutes to get past Jaite, ranked 14th in the world.

John Ross upset second-seeded Slobodan Zivojinovic, leaving Eliot Teltscher as the only seeded player to make the quarterfinals of the $200,000 Seiko Super Grand Prix at Hong Kong.

Ross downed the Yugoslav, 7-6, 3-6, 6-4, while the third-seeded Teltscher beat Brod Dyke of Australia, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.

West Germany’s Christina Singer upset sixth-seeded Sylvia Hanika, also of West Germany, 0-6, 7-6, 7-6, and advanced to the quarterfinals of the $150,000 European Indoor tournament at Zurich, Switzerland.

Regina Marsikova of Czechoslovakia withdrew with a knee injury at 2-3 against fifth-seeded Bulgarian Katerina Maleeva.

In other matches, Steffi Graf of West Germany, the world’s top-ranked woman player, routed Julie Halard of France, 6-1, 6-2; second-seeded Hana Mandlikova of Czechoslovakia trounced Isabelle Demongeot of France, 6-1, 6-2, and unseeded Judith Wiesner of Austria defeated Nicole Provis of France, 6-3, 6-4.

Lori McNeil needed only 50 minutes for a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Great Britain’s Sara Gomer, giving the United States a 2-0 lead after the opening round of the Wightman Cup challenge matches at Williamslburg, Va.

In the first match, heavily favored Zina Garrison of the United States overcame a 4-0 deficit in the first set en route to a 7-5, 6-2 victory over Anne Hobbs.

Pam Shriver of the United States plays Britain’s Jo Durie tonight, followed by a doubles match between the No. 2 teams, Gigi Fernandez and Robin White of the United States and Great Britain’s Gomer and Clare Wood.