San Francisco Tennis Tournament : McEnroe Beats Pugh, Reaches Quarterfinals

Third-seeded John McEnroe defeated last year’s runner-up, Jim Pugh, 7-5, 6-4, Thursday night to advance to the quarterfinals of the $425,000 TransAmerica tennis tournament.

McEnroe, 29, who has won the tournament five times, most recently in 1986, will meet Tim Wilkison, who defeated fifth-seeded David Pate, 2-6, 7-6, 6-3.

In the 11th game of the first set, McEnroe served three aces and hit a stretching four-hand volley winner to lead, 6-5, then broke Pugh’s serve at love on two consecutive winners to take the set.

Pugh, of Palos Verdes and ranked 58th in the world, lost the first three games of the second set but rallied to win the next three.

In the fifth game, McEnroe had a short dispute with umpire Marv Goldburg, who ruled that he had not served an ace at 15-30. But McEnroe won the point when Pugh netted a backhand.

The next break came in the match-game, which took 8 deuce points to decide. McEnroe scored on two consecutive backhand errors by Pugh to win.

In the afternoon’s other matches, Danie Visser defeated Richard Matuszewski, 6-1, 7-6, and Johan Kriek defeated Jim Grabb, 6-1, 6-2, to reach the quarterfinals.