Wimbledon Roundup : Garrison Charges Past Sabatini

Zina Garrison, who for at least one day went from a player who loses big matches to one who wins even bigger ones, didn’t think Gabriela Sabatini was comfortable on the grass courts of the All England Lawn Tennis Club.

“The difference in her confidence level from clay to grass was unbelievable,” the 12th-seeded Garrison said. “I figured her nerves would outweigh mine.”

Garrison had not advanced past the fourth round in her last three Grand Slam tournaments, but she was not tentative in her 6-1, 3-6, 6-2 fourth-round victory Monday at the Wimbledon championships.

Sabatini, seeded fifth, said she just played poorly.

“But she played so well,” the Argentine added. “I was a little slow, and my serve was not working very well. She went on court to play everything, and she did everything right. I was in confusion, and I didn’t know what to do.”

Even in the second set, when Sabatini held off game point to break Garrison’s serve for a 5-3 lead, the Argentine said she “was not playing well.”

On a cloudy day in which rain came into play again, Sabatini wasn’t the only seeded player upset in the women’s draw.

Unseeded Rosalyn Fairbank ousted No. 8 Natalia Zvereva of the Soviet Union, 6-2, 6-4.

Fourth-seeded Chris Evert had to rally to beat Katrina Adams, a 19-year-old who still has her first Chris Evert autograph model racket at home in Chicago.

“I was not aggressive enough. I didn’t deserve to win the first set,” said Evert, who won the match, 5-7, 6-3, 6-0. “What I’d heard about her was very accurate. She gets in quick, and this is probably her best surface.”

In the second set, Evert found her rhythm, and her returns of serve and passing shots improved. Adams won only seven points in the final set.

Also moving into the quarterfinals were No. 1 Steffi Graf, No 3. Pam Shriver, No. 6 Helena Sukova of Czechoslovakia and unseeded Pascale Paradis of France. Graf defeated 16-year-old Mary Joe Fernandez, 6-2, 6-2. Shriver, who will play Garrison next, defeated No. 14 Katerina Maleeva of Bulgaria, 6-2, 6-2. Sukova beat Barbara Potter, 7-6, 6-4, and Paradis eliminated Anne Minter of Australia, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4.

In the men’s draw, top-seeded Ivan Lendl was pushed to five sets before defeating Mark Woodforde of Australia, and second-seeded Mats Wilander overcame big-serving Slobodan Zivojinovic of Yugoslavia, 6-4, 7-6, 7-5.

Defending champion Pat Cash, seeded fourth, survived the distractions of “a zoo” around court 14 to defeat Andrei Olhovskiy of the Soviet Union, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3.

“The court was in good shape, but it was impossible to concentrate, especially in the first set,” sad Cash, who again tossed headbands to his admirers, as has become his tradition. “There were people walking around nonstop and photographers taking pictures all the time.”

In other matches, No. 3 Stefan Edberg of Sweden and No. 9 Miloslav Mecir of Czechoslovakia advanced with wins over unseeded Australians. Edberg beat Simon Youl, 6-2, 6-4, 6-4, and Mecir downed Wally Masur, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4, 6-2.

Darkness came after a brief early evening downpour, forcing the postponement of Boris Becker’s match against Paul Annacone and halting three matches in progress.

When play was called, No. 2 Martina Navratilova was trailing No. 13 Larisa Savchenko of the Soviet Union, 4-2, in the first set.

Fifth-seeded Jimmy Connors and Patrick Kuhnen of West Germany were tied, 6-6, in the third set after splitting the first two sets, and No. 10 Tim Mayotte was leading No. 7 Henri Leconte, 6-4, 7-6.