Italian Men’s Open Tennis : At Start, Wilander Has Troubles

Second-seeded Mats Wilander of Sweden, erasing 4 set points in winning an 11-9 tiebreaker, began defense of his Italian Open men’s tennis championship Monday with a 7-6, 6-1 victory over Francesco Cancellotti of Italy.

However, eighth-seeded Martin Jaite of Argentina, the man who lost to Wilander in last year’s final on the slow red clay at Foro Italico, was upset in the first round by Thomas Muster of Austria, 6-2, 6-1.

“I felt bad and played bad,” said Jaite, the first of the 16 seeded players to fall. “I expected to lose.”

Fifth-seeded Kent Carlsson of Sweden, the only other seeded player in action on the first day of the $825,000 tournament, swept past Pavel Vojtisek of West Germany, 6-4, 6-0.

In another match, Guillermo Vilas of Argentina, the 1980 Rome champion, outlasted Broderick Dyke of Australia, 6-3, 0-6, 6-0.

Top-seeded Ivan Lendl makes his debut later this week.

“I’m not playing well enough to win this tournament,” said Wilander, who rarely took chances and often abandoning his two-handed backhand for a defensive one-handed slice. “But I’ll improve in a few days.”

Two unseeded Americans were eliminated. Lawson Duncan was beaten by Milan Srejber of Czechoslovakia, 7-6, 6-2, and Luke Jensen lost to Jaime Yzaga of Peru, 6-2, 6-3.