Tennis Roundup : Connors, Agassi Victorious; Wilander Struggles but Wins

Andre Agassi and Jimmy Connors, the No. 2 and No. 5 seeded players, advanced to the second round of the $1- million Italian Open championship at Rome with routine straight-set victories Tuesday.

Top-seeded Mats Wilander of Sweden, hoping to break out of a long slump, came to life after a listless first set and outlasted Javier Frana of Argentina, 6-7, 6-3, 6-2.

Agassi survived a brief second-set lapse to beat fellow American Todd Witsken, 6-1, 6-4, and Connors rolled over French qualifier Cedric Pioline, 6-4, 6-2.

Connors, playing for the first time in Rome in 14 years, and Agassi were never in danger against their overmatched opponents. Agassi lived up to his crowd-pleasing reputation by throwing his sweat-soaked shirt and a warmup jacket to his fans in the stands.

Other seeds advancing were No. 6 Emilio Sanchez of Spain, a 6-1, 6-2 winner over Edoardo Bengoechea of Argentina; No. 11 Alberto Mancini of Argentina, who defeated Francisco Clavet of Spain 6-3, 6-2; and No. 13 Jaime Yzaga of Peru, who beat Marian Vajda of Czechoslovakia 7-5, 6-2.

Two seeded players were eliminated. Ninth-seeded Ronald Agenor of Haiti, who reached the semifinals here last year, was upset by Bruno Oresar of Yugoslavia, 7-6 (7-3), 3-6, 6-2. And No. 12 Andres Gomez of Ecuador, winner of the Italian Open in 1982 and 1984, was ousted by Spain’s Sergio Bruguera, 2-6, 6-2, 6-2.

Wilander, who won the French, Australian and U.S. Opens last year but is without a tournament victory in eight months, appeared in danger of another early exit Tuesday.

The Swede, who has slipped from No. 1 to No. 3 in the world, appeared to be sleepwalking in the first set against Frana, a 22-year-old left-hander ranked 100th.

Even in the tiebreaker, where he is usually unbeatable, Wilander lacked enthusiasm. He led 5-4 but failed to capitalize, making two forehand errors that allowed Frana to take the tiebreaker, 8-6.

After falling behind, 3-1, in the second set, Wilander rallied. Hustling around the court, hitting with authority and cutting down on mistakes, he won five straight games for the set. He lost only five points during the run, winning 15 of 17 points at one stretch.

Wilander continued to dominate in the third set, scoring two service breaks along the way.

“After losing the first set and falling behind in the second, I said to myself, ‘I can’t just stand here and do nothing,”’ said Wilander, who played with a new racket. “I realized I really wanted to win the match. I haven’t felt that way in a long time. Today I was fighting in a match for the first time in four or five weeks.”

Top-seeded Steffi Graf, ranked No. 1 in the world, overcame early deficits in both sets and went on to defeat Tine Scheuer-Larsen of Denmark, 7-5, 6-4, in the first round of a $300,000 women’s tournament at Berlin.

The West German took 2 hours 8 minutes to dispose of her opponent, ranked 94th internationally, after falling behind 1-2 at the start of both sets.

Nathalie Tauziat of France, ranked 12th, also won but with difficulty, 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7-3), against Sabrina Goles of Yugoslavia.