Hlasek and 3 Other Seeds Eliminated From Tourney

Fourth-seed Jakob Hlasek of Switzerland and three other seeded players were eliminated today at the $607,500 Monte Carlo Open tennis tournament.

Argentine Martin Jaite, who lost in last year’s finals of this tournament to Ivan Lendl, beat Hlasek 6-4, 6-1.

The two top seeds advanced in rainy conditions. Mats Wilander of Sweden beat wild-card Diego Nargiso of Italy, 7-6 (7-4), 6-1 and Boris Becker of West Germany topped Lawson Duncan 6-4, 6-1.

Sixth-seeded Henri Leconte of France withdrew during his match against Patrick Kuhnen of West Germany. Kuhnen was leading 6-3, 3-2 when Leconte decided to abandon the match because of a back injury.

In other second-round matches, Marcelo Filippini of Uruguay beat 15th-seeded Mark Woodforde of Australia 7-5, 6-1 and Jan Gunnarsson of Sweden eliminated the 11th seed, Slobodan Zivojinoviv of Yugoslavia, 6-4, 6-2.

Hlasek said he knew he would be in for a difficult match.

“I was prepared for a tough match because I haven’t played a match on clay in eight months and he’s already played a few tournaments, including yesterday,” Hlasek said. “I played very badly and made it easy for him to beat me.”

Nargiso, who lives here, served for the first set at 6-5. But Wilander held him off, won the tiebreaker 7-4 and romped in the second set 6-1.

“It’s hard to practice for a few weeks and then play your first match,” Wilander said. He won three of the four Grand Slam tournaments last year.

“I’m just happy I won,” Wilander added. “To play on clay is such a mental game, and you have to be fresh.”

Becker, a two-time Wimbledon champion, had an easy time against Duncan. In the last two years of this tournament, Becker lost in his first match.

“It’s almost like winning the entire tournament,” Becker said. “It was very special for me.”

Ninth-seeded Jonas Svensson of Sweden survived a scare against Thierry Tulasne of France. Svensson overcame a 5-2 deficit in the third set to win 6-7 (5-7), 6-3, 7-5.