Lendl, Cash Struggle, but Becker Has No Trouble in Second Round

Travelers to the Wimbledon championships were delayed Wednesday morning when, according to station masters all along the District Line, “a person was under the train.”

Deadpan delivery or not, this was grim stuff, and though it was hardly a life-threatening situation, second-round action looked as if it would develop along the same lines.

First, top-ranked Ivan Lendl gave fans a scare when he allowed a set to Darren Cahill. Lendl came back to win, 5-7, 6-2, 6-4, 6-4, and earned a warning. The judge said it was for “yelling out ‘stupid jerks,’ ” according to Lendl. “I said ‘stupid calls.’ ”

Then, defending champion Pat Cash, after winning the first set, 6-2, dropped the next two, 4-6 and 3-6, to Javier Frana, who was playing in only his second grass-court tournament. The first was two weeks ago at the Queen’s Club, when Cash beat him, 6-1, 6-1.

Cash finally won, beating Frana in the last two sets, 6-1, 6-4, then did his Elvis Presley thing, digging in his bag for five checkered bandannas and flinging them into the stands.

Then Michael Chang, the youngest player ever to win a Wimbledon match when he did so on Monday, gave French Open runner-up Henri Leconte a scare. The 16-year-old from Placentia, Calif., won the first set, 6-2, but dropped the second, 7-6, losing in a tough tiebreaker, 7-3. Leconte, seeded seventh, then won the next two sets, 6-2 and 6-3.

Two-time champion Boris Becker got out of here unscathed, making short work of Karel Novacek, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4. It was coming in where he had trouble.

When he arrived in his blue convertible, he was advised that he didn’t have the correct parking pass and was directed to the regular parking lot. There he was told he’d have to pay five pounds, the equivalent of about $9.

He refused and parked on the street, faring better, for all of that, than the man under the train.