Tennis Roundup : Spanish Teen-Ager Beats Connors in Straight Sets

Jimmy Connors’ clay-court problems continued Thursday when he was eliminated from the Italian Open by Sergio Bruguera, an 18-year-old Spaniard who once idolized the American.

Connors, 36, showed the effects of his three-set match that ended at 11 the night before, bowing out, 6-1, 6-1, on the Foro Italico center court at Rome.

Bruguera was joined in the quarterfinals by three other little-known unseeded players--Mark Koevermans of the Netherlands, Jordi Arrese of Spain and Omar Camporese of Italy.

Koevermans, who earlier eliminated Kent Carlsson and Jose-Luis Clerc, defeated Italy’s Diego Nargiso, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.

Arrese beat 10th-seeded Darren Cahill of Australia, 3-6, 6-3, 7-5.

Camporese, who earlier upset Miloslav Mecir, downed No. 13 Jaime Yzaga of Peru, 6-3, 6-4.

Rain halted other matches.

Second-seeded Andre Agassi was leading Leonardo Lavalle of Mexico, 6-3, when play was suspended. Guillermo Perez-Roldan of Argentina had a 6-1, 6-7 (7-3), 3-1 lead over American Jim Courier.

Bruguera, the 85th-ranked player who lost to Connors in three sets last week at Hamburg, West Germany, changed his strategy this time, attacking Connors’ forehand and making him move around often.

As the fifth-seeded Connors came off the court, he said, “That’s exhaustion.”

Connors, who has incurred recent early-round losses in clay-court events at Monte Carlo, Munich, Hamburg and Rome, said he is planning to move to Paris with his family next year.

When he was young, Bruguera said Connors was his favorite player. “I tried to imitate him,” Bruguera said. “I even cut my hair the way he did in the Prince Valiant style. I always dreamed about being able to play against him one day and to beat him.”

On a day when three of the top five seeded players were eliminated, No. 2 Gabriela Sabatini of Argentina overcame a listless start to beat Radka Zrubakova of Czechoslovakia, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2, advancing to the quarterfinals of the German Open women’s tournament at West Berlin.

“I just couldn’t concentrate; I played badly,” Sabatini said. “Then I decided to go to the net more often and that’s where I made the decisive points.”

Eliminated were No. 3 Helena Sukova of Czechoslovakia, by Barbara Paulus of Austria, 6-7, 7-5, 6-4; No. 4 Katarina Maleeva of Bulgaria, by Isabel Cueto of West Germany, 6-3, 6-3, and No. 5 Mary Joe Fernandez, by Regina Rajchrtova of Czechoslovakia, 6-3, 6-3.

Sandra Birch, a Stanford sophomore, beat Jennifer Santrock of Southern Methodist, 6-3, 6-3, to win the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. women’s individual tournament at Gainesville, Fla.

Birch made 11 unforced errors, while Santrock, a serve-and-volley player, had 45 unforced errors.