Tennis Roundup : Paradis Upsets Sukova; Navratilova Breezes to Win

Pascale Paradis of France, an unseeded player, upset defending champion and fourth-seeded Helena Sukova of Czechoslovakia, 6-1, 6-3, Tuesday in the second round of a $250,000 grass-court tournament at Eastbourne, England.

Top-seeded Martina Navratilova, who has won this Wimbledon tuneup six times since 1978, advanced to the third round by routing American-born Briton Monique Javer, 6-2, 6-1. Second-seeded Pam Shriver struggled past Robin White, 6-4, 2-6, 6-3.

Third-seeded Gabriela Sabatini of Argentina beat Catherine Tanvier of France when Tanvier withdrew with a pulled thigh. Sabatini was leading, 6-4, 4-1.

Wimbledon doesn’t begin until next week, but John McEnroe already is off to a good start.

McEnroe, who is returning to the famed grass courts for the first time in three years, fared very well in Tuesday’s draw.

The three-time champion opens against 19-year-old Horst Skoff of Austria and is not seeded to face a true grass-court player until the fourth round when his opponent would be hard-serving Kevin Curren, who beat McEnroe in the 1985 quarterfinals.

Ivan Lendl, seeded No. 1, meets Britain’s David Felgate in the opening round. Boris Becker, seeded No. 6, faces John Frawley of Australia.

Lendl, Becker, defending champion Pat Cash and French Open runner-up Henri Leconte are in the same half of the draw. Barring upsets, the quarterfinal pairings would be Lendl-Leconte and Cash-Becker.

If the seedings hold up in the other half of the draw, second-seeded Mats Wilander would meet No. 8 McEnroe and third-seeded Stefan Edberg would play No. 5 Jimmy Connors in the other quarterfinals.

In women’s singles, top-seeded Steffi Graf opens against Hu Na, and No. 2 Martina Navratilova, who is seeking her seventh straight Wimbledon singles title and record ninth overall, meets Sabrina Goles of Yugoslovavia in the first round.