Tennis Roundup : Gilbert Advances Past Pugh

Top-seeded Brad Gilbert and third-seeded Luiz Mattar advanced to the quarterfinals of the $200,000 U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championships Wednesday at Charleston, S.C.

Gilbert defeated Jim Pugh, 6-3, 6-3, after Mattar beat Alex Antonitsch, 6-3, 6-7 (8-6), 6-4, in a match that lasted nearly 2 1/2 hours.

Second-seeded Michael Chang defeated Diego Perez of Spain, 6-3, 6-3.

Gilbert, using a strong serve and forehand, dominated Pugh, ranked 69th in the world. Gilbert, ranked 16th, won the first set after disputing a fault call on his serve that was changed by the line umpire.

Gilbert broke Pugh at 15-15 to open the second set, then earned a second break to win the match with a backhand down the line.

Two-time Wimbledon champion Boris Becker of West Germany defeated Javier Sanchez of Spain, 6-1, 6-3, to advance to the third round of the $692,000 German Open tournament at Hamburg, West Germany.

Top-ranked Ivan Lendl also advanced by beating Andrei Cherkasov of the Soviet Union, 6-4, 6-4.

“I had expected a tough match,” Lendl said. “You can’t get used to clay in just one game.”

Top-seeded Gabriela Sabatini, blasting heavy top-spin shots with precision, opened defense of the Italian Open title with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Laura Golarsa of Italy at Rome.

Sabatini, of Argentina, ranked No. 3 in the world, settled down after a slow start and overpowered the 81st-ranked Golarsa in about an hour.

“I played really well,” Sabatini said. “I moved really well and I had very good concentration.”

Golarsa, who has never won a pro tournament, said:

“It’s useless to look for a miracle.”

In other second-round matches involving seeded players, No. 9 Terry Phelps defeated Kathy Caversazio of Italy, 6-4, 6-1.

No. 10 Bettina Fulco of Argentina defeated qualifier Celine Cohen of Switzerland, 6-4, 6-2; No. 12 Isabelle Demongeot swept Marzia Grossi of Italy, 6-4, 6-1; No. 13 Barbara Paulus of Austria beat Amanda Coetzer of South Africa, 6-2, 6-4, and No. 14 Nathalie Tauziat of France rallied to defeat Elna Reinach of South Africa, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.

Top-seeded Stefan Edberg of Sweden defeated Finland’s Veli Paloheimo, 2-6, 6-4, 6-2, in a $160,000 men’s tournament at Ede, the Netherlands, and advanced to the quarterfinals.

Also in the second-round, Argentina’s Horacio de la Pena beat seventh-seeded Australian Mark Woodforde, 6-1, 6-4; Jose Luis Clerc of Argentina ousted fifth-seeded Amos Mansdorf of Israel, 6-1, 6-2; sixth-seeded Anders Jarryd of Sweden eliminated Michiel Schapers of the Netherlands, 6-4, 6-2; and eighth-seeded Derrick Rostagno of Czechoslovakia beat New Zealand’s Kelly Evernden, 6-0, 4-6, 6-4.

Yannick Noah of France has pulled out of next week’s $1-million Italian Open because of a foot injury, organizers said in Rome.

Noah, whose aggressive go-for-broke style made him a crowd favorite at the Foro Italico, won the Italian Open in 1985.

Noah’s replacement was named in the 64-player field.