Tennis Roundup : Lendl Puts Away Swedish Foe After Rome Rain Delay

Top-seeded Ivan Lendl, looking sharp after a rain delay that lasted more than five hours, advanced to the final of the Italian Open tennis championships at Rome by beating fifth-seeded Kent Carlsson of Sweden, 6-3, 6-3, Saturday night.

No. 14 Guillermo Perez-Roldan of Argentina defeated unseeded Ronald Agenor of Haiti, 6-3, 6-3, in the other semifinal of the $825,000 clay-court tournament.

The semifinals were played simultaneously at the Foro Italico as a result of a heavy afternoon downpour that interrupted the Lendl-Carlsson match at 1-1 in the first set.

On center court, with the stands half-empty, Lendl played his best match of the tournament after three straight lackluster three-set victories. He attacked Carlsson’s looping topspin ground strokes and came through with big first serves, while the Swede played exclusively from the baseline and committed more errors than usual.

Perez-Roldan’s victory halted the surprising run of Agenor, who had upset second-seeded Mats Wilander and Las Vegas teen-ager Andre Agassi.

Perez-Roldan, who won the Munich tournament last week and has not dropped a set in Rome, ran down everything that Agenor threw at him in their baseline battle.

Lendl said he spent the rain delay watching the Cup of England soccer match and National Basketball Assn. playoff games on television.

Top-seeded Steffi Graf of West Germany defeated compatriot Claudia Kohde-Kilsch, 6-1, 6-0, to advance to the final of the $300,000 Berlin tournament. The match lasted only 41 minutes.

Graf will face Helena Sukova of Czechoslovakia in today’s final. Sukova beat Sylvia Hanika of West Germany, 6-2, 6-3, in the other semifinal.

In the NCAA Division III women’s championships at Atlanta, Carolyn Bodart of Menlo College, a freshman from Belgium, took advantage of a third-set double fault by Christine Behrens of UC San Diego to win the all-California singles final, 7-6, 2-6, 6-3.

The doubles final was won by Julie Lindberg and Karen Nilsen of Pomona-Pitzer, who defeated Joli Harvanik and Amy Danser of Trenton (N.J.) State, 7-6, 6-3. Lindberg and Nilsen advanced to the semifinals last year.