Wimbledon Roundup : Edberg Struggles; Lendl Taking Heat

Third-seeded Stefan Edberg of Sweden struggled before overcoming doubles specialist Ken Flach, 6-2, 7-5, 2-6, 7-5, Saturday to advance to the fourth round of the Wimbledon Championships. His countryman, second-seeded Mats Wilander, kept his hopes for a Grand Slam alive with a 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 victory over Menno Oosting of the Netherlands.

In women’s play, second-seeded Martina Navratilova moved a step closer to her seventh straight Wimbledon singles title (her ninth overall) by beating Karen Schimper of South Africa, 6-0, 6-4.

Meanwhile, a member of Parliament called for Ivan Lendl to be disciplined for remarks made during an argument with British umpire Gerry Armstrong Friday.

Conservative MP Irvine Patnick said Lendl’s outburst set a bad example for fans, particularly children. “This sort of indiscipline among sports stars . . . has got to be stamped out,” Patnick said.

A British news agency, Press Association, had quoted Lendl as saying: “What more bad news have you got for me? Are you going to tell me that my house burned down? I hate your guts.”

The All England Lawn Tennis Club said Lendl had not been fined or even warned for the outburst.

And MP Peter Rost said: “There is so much money in the game now that there is a reluctance on the part of authorities, particularly the Wimbledon authorities, to discipline stars who behave in this appalling way . . . With the terrible example this man Lendl has set to those who hero-worship him, he should have been disqualified from Wimbledon on the spot.”

In another featured women’s match, Katrina Adams, 19, who turned professional earlier this year, upset No. 15-seeded Sylvia Hanika of West Germany, 6-3, 6-3, and will play Chris Evert, at 33 the oldest woman remaining in the field.

Evert defeated Akiko Kijimuta of Japan, 6-4, 6-0.

Adams, an aggressive serve-and-volley player, could not believe she was playing in the world’s oldest Grand Slam tennis event. “I always dreamed of turning pro and playing at Wimbledon,” she said.

Her match against Evert Monday is expected to be played on one of the show courts, either No. 1 or Centre Court.

Tenth-seeded Lori McNeil was also upset, losing to South African Ros Fairbank, 7-6, 6-4.

The rest of the seeded women were victorious, including No. 3 Pam Shriver, No. 5 Gabriela Sabatini, No. 8 Natalia Zvereva, No. 13 Larisa Savchenko and No. 14 Katerina Maleeva.

Maleeva’s 6-0, 6-0 victory over Belinda Cordwell of New Zealand was the second shutout of the tournament. Top-seeded Steffi Graf blanked Hu Na in the opening round.

Wilander said that his next opponent, Slobodan Zivojinovic of Yugoslavia, would be “a big risk” to his Grand Slam hopes. Zivojinovic downed West Germany’s Eric Jelen, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6, 6-3.

“I’ll just have to hope he doesn’t serve 100%,” Wilander said. “I think his serve is the best in the world on grass, even better than (Boris) Becker’s.”

Wilander, who never has advanced past the quarterfinals here, said his chances of winning the tournament increased when John McEnroe was eliminated in the second round. Both players were in the same half of the draw.