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International Players Championships : Connors Is the Winner After Rain

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Associated Press

Jimmy Connors won his third match in four days Friday night, beating Austria’s Horst Skoff in straight sets to advance to the fourth round of the International Players Championships.

Connors’ 6-2, 7-6, 6-1 victory highlighted the fifth day of the two-week tournament and followed a rainstorm that delayed the start of the match more than an hour.

Others winning at night despite interruptions or delays due to the rain included 11th-seeded Emilio Sanchez of Spain, No. 13 Kevin Curren and No. 15 Andres Gomez of Ecuador. Pam Shriver and Zina Garrison, seeded fourth and fifth, respectively, in the women’s draw, also won.

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During the day session at the International Tennis Center, 10th-seeded Aaron Krickstein avoided an upset, and top-seeded Ivan Lendl won his third-round match in straight sets.

Krickstein outlasted Alexander Mronz, ranked 290th in the world, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-7, 7-6. The match took 3 hours 41 minutes, not including three brief rain delays.

“It was hard because I’m usually a slow starter, and we had to stop three or four times,” Krickstein said. “So each time it was like a new beginning.”

Lendl moved into the fourth round with a 7-5, 6-0, 6-4 victory over Paolo Cane of Italy. The two played five sets the last time they met before Lendl won, but this time he had more trouble with the humid weather than with Cane.

“The climate was taking its toll,” Lendl said. “I just feel like sleeping all day today.”

Sanchez defeated Sweden’s Christian Bergstrom, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-3; Curren beat Scott Davis, 6-3, 3-6, 4-6, 7-6, 6-4, and Gomez outlasted Jonathan Canter, 7-6, 7-6, 6-4.

Shriver defeated Amanda Coetzer of South Africa, 7-5, 6-2, and Garrison downed Laura Gildemeister of Peru, 6-2, 6-1.

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Earlier, second-seeded Chris Evert ousted Nathalie Tauziat of France, 6-3, 6-3, and ninth-seeded Mary Joe Fernandez beat Beverly Bowes, 6-1, 6-3.

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