Tennis Roundup : McEnroe Struggles Past Volkov

John McEnroe didn’t always maintain his new good-guy image Wednesday as he struggled to a 7-5, 6-4 victory over Alexander Volkov of the Soviet Union in the Wirral Grasscourt tournament at West Kirby, England.

Although the three-time Wimbledon champion served well, he appeared unsteady at times in his first match on a British grass court since 1985.

One incident during the Wimbledon warm-up showed that McEnroe still has a temper. With the score tied, 5-5, during the first set, McEnroe refused to play until umpire Bob Jenkins changed his mind over a decision to overrule a line call in Volkov’s favor.

However, McEnroe did not use any of the profanities that characterized many of his past outbursts. He stamped his foot once, but only to show that there was chalk dust behind the baseline.

Jenkins eventually agreed to call a let and replay the point, and McEnroe went on to clinch the victory, serving 10 aces.

Miroslav Mecir of Czechoslovakia, the tournament’s top-seeded player, was ousted by unseeded American Jim Pugh, 6-3, 6-4.

Martina Navratilova, playing almost flawlessly on her favorite surface, gave another strong grass-court performance at Eastbourne, England. Navratilova, who will be going for a record ninth women’s singles title at Wimbledon, defeated Raffaella Reggi of Italy, 6-0, 6-2 in just 43 minutes to reach the quarterfinals of the $250,000 Pilkington Glass championships.

But her doubles partner, Pam Shriver, did not even start her third-round match, giving a walkover to Caterina Lindqvist of Sweden because she aggravated a thigh injury. West Germany’s Claudia Kohde-Kilsch withdrew during the second set against Larissa Savchenko of the Soviet Union because of a knee injury.

Sandy Collins, Penny Barg and Ronni Reis of the United States, and the world’s top-ranked junior player, Jo Anne Faull of Australia, qualified for the women’s singles field at Wimbledon.