Tennis Roundup : Evert Turns It On in Second Set to Overcome Potter, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4

Chris Evert fought off a first-set loss and rallied to defeat Barbara Potter, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4, Wednesday night in the first round of the Virginia Slims tennis tournament in New York.

“In the second set, I was thinking, ‘Oh my heaven, I’m doing it again. Why here, in one of my favorite places?”’ said Evert, who was beaten by Sylvia Hanika in the first round of last year’s tournament.

After falling behind, 4-2, in the second set, Potter sprained an ankle while diving for a shot and took a 5-minute break. When play resumed, Evert won 8 straight points to take the set and then broke the hard-serving Potter twice in the final set to win the match.

In other first-round matches, eighth-seeded Helena Sukova spoiled Zina Garrison’s 25th birthday with a 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory, and No. 4 Gabriela Sabatini routed Katerina Maleeva of Bulgaria, 6-2, 6-1.

Third-seeded Aaron Krickstein overcame a slow start to beat Rick Leach, 6-4, 7-6, in a second-round match of the Little Caesars tournament in Detroit.

It was the second match within 18 hours for Krickstein, who needed three sets to beat Dan Goldberg, 6-1, 6-7, 6-3, Tuesday.

“I was thinking about that,” Krickstein said of the Goldberg match. “And I didn’t want to play a third set again.”

Third-seeded Brad Gilbert advanced to the quarterfinals of the South African Open with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Greg Holmes at Johannesburg, South Africa.

In another second-round match, No. 5-seeded Kevin Curran outlasted Simon Youl of Australia, 5-7, 7-6, 6-1.

In first-round matches, top-seeded Henri Leconte of France overcame Kevin Moir of South Africa, 6-7, 6-1, 6-3; second-seeded Jakob Hlasek of Switzerland defeated Paolo Cane of Italy, 7-5, 7-6; Nicolas Periera upset sixth-seeded Amos Mansdorf of Israel, 6-3, 6-4, and Brad Drewett of Australia downed Claudio Mezzadri of Switzerland, 6-4, 6-4.