Tennis Roundup : Evert Sets Record Straight, Confirms Her Engagement

Chris Evert won in straight sets and made big news.

For the record, Evert beat Pascale Paradis of France, 6-4, 6-2, Monday and advanced to the quarterfinals of the $2.1-million Lipton International Players Championships at Key Biscayne, Fla.

So much for tennis. Afterward, in an effort to end the rumors, she announced that she is engaged to marry former U.S. Olympic skier Andy Mill later this year.

“It’s big news for one day, and then the next day you’re on to something else, and I can get on with my tennis,” she said. “This is an important tournament for me, and I really want to do well.

“We might get married after Wimbledon or after the U.S. Open, but I don’t think we should have to wait eight or nine months the second time around when we have made a commitment.”

Evert and British tennis player John Lloyd were divorced last year. Mill, 35, recently divorced his first wife.

Mill, who is a television commentator and endorses ski products, met Evert on New Year’s Eve 1986 when she was learning to ski and visiting tennis star Martina Navratilova in Aspen, Colo.

“It’s worked out very well because our professions are different, and they are different times of the year,” Evert said. “We can be together a lot. I wouldn’t recommend being apart; it’s difficult on a relationship.”

Her former husband, Lloyd, is marrying American Deborah Taylor-Bellman on Sunday in Los Angeles.

Evert said she and Mill will be married in Boca Raton where she lives. No date has been set.

Second-seeded Jimmy Connors, who was once engaged to Evert, advanced to the men’s quarterfinals by beating No. 17 Amos Mansdorf of Israel, 6-3, 6-4, 6-3. Mansdorf upset Connors in straight sets the only other time they played.

“I played better today than I have in my first three matches,” Connors said. “I hit the ball more solidly and deeper, I moved the ball better and I moved better myself.

“I knew his game a little better and I knew what I had to do against him. I tried to play aggressive tennis.”

In other men’s fourth-round matches, Jay Berger upset 11th-seeded Emilio Sanchez of Spain, third-seeded Miloslav Mecir of Czechoslovakia started slowly before winning 11 straight games in a 7-5, 6-0, 6-1 victory over No. 14 Mikael Pernfors of Sweden and seventh-seeded Anders Jarryd of Sweden ousted Guy Forget of France, 6-2, 1-6, 6-4, 7-6.

In other women’s fourth-round matches, fifth-seeded Helena Sukova of Czechoslovakia swept past No. 12 Raffaella Reggi of Italy, 6-3, 6-0, and will play Evert in today’s quarterfinals, Stephanie Rehe defeated Patricia Tarbini of Argentina, 6-4, 6-2, and Barbara Potter eliminated Sabine Auer of West Germany, 6-3, 6-0.