Tennis Roundup : McEnroe Upset by Jim Pugh

John McEnroe’s Wimbledon preparations were setback Wednesday when he was upset, 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-4), by Jim Pugh of Palos Verdes in the second round of a grass-court warm-up tournament at Wirral, England.

But top-seeded Boris Becker won easily, beating Jan Gunnarson of Sweden, 6-2, 6-3.

Becker, who had a first-round bye, took an hour to beat Gunnarson on his fourth match point, reaching the third round of the Wirral International.

McEnroe, seeded second at Wirral and seeded fifth at Wimbledon next week, gained the only service break in the match as he took the opening set, but was edged in both tiebreakers.

Pugh, primarily a doubles specialist, is ranked 77th in the world.

“I have lost in other places before and I am sure I will again, but it’s one of those things,” said McEnroe, who also had a first-round bye. “They were difficult conditions. In addition to the court, it was windy. I didn’t lose my serve, but I couldn’t get any rhythm on the passing shot.

“I’m not worried about it. I’m disappointed for the people here because you always try to go out and win, but at Wimbledon, I’ll go out and do my thing.

“I feel like I’m playing well and I’m ready to go there and do the best I can. This will be long forgotten when I go and walk out on court.”

Pugh said it was the best singles victory of his career.

“I always remember watching McEnroe win Wimbledon and he’s been my idol on grass,” he said. “That’s how I learned to play on grass, doing what John McEnroe does. Maybe I did it better than he did today.”

Martina Navratilova breezed into the quarterfinals of Wimbledon’s main women’s warm-up tournament at Eastbourne, England.

The top-seeded Navratilova coasted by an injured Larisa Savchenko, 6-3, 6-0, at the $300,000 Virginia Slims event.

Savchenko gained a 3-1 lead over Navratilova in the first set, then pulled a hamstring three games later and posed no further threat as she had trouble moving off the baseline.

“When I felt the pain I knew I had to lose, because if you are not physically fit against her you have no chance,” Savchenko said.

Unseeded Etsuko Inoue of Japan upset No. 3 Zina Garrison, 4-6, 6-4, 9-7. In another upset, Ros Fairbank of South Africa ousted fourth-seeded Helena Sukova, 6-2, 6-3, and No. 7 Mary Joe Fernandez stopped Nathalie Tauziat of France, 6-3, 6-4.

Top-seeded Derrick Rostagno defeated Paul Chamberlin, 6-1, 6-2, to advance to the third round of a $130,000 Grand Prix grass-court tournament at Bristol, England.

No. 2-seeded Richard Matusewski outlasted David Wheaton, 7-6, 7-6. Defending champion Christian Saceanu of West Germany--unseeded this year--lost, 7-6, 6-2, to Australian Brad Drewett, and India’s Vijay Amritraj was eliminated by sixth-seeded Kelly Evernden of New Zealand, 6-2, 6-4.

Ivan Lendl, the world’s top-ranked player, beat Kevin Curren, 7-6, 5-7, 7-6, in the Wentworth exhibition Wimbledon tuneup at Wentworth, England.

In the second match of the round robin event, Jakob Hlasek of Switzerland downed Darren Cahill of Australia, 7-6 (7-0), 7-6 (7-5).

Top-seeded Javier Sanchez of Spain and seventh-seeded Argentine Franco Davin advanced to the second round of the “Puglia 89” clay-court tennis tournament at Bari, Italy.

Sanchez used a consistent baseline game to overcome Ricky Osterthun of West Germany, 6-3, 2-6, 6-3. Davin defeated Claudio Panatta, the younger brother of Italian Davis Cup captain Adriano Panatta, 6-1, 7-6 (7-2).