Once Again, McEnroe Overcomes All Obstacles : He Survives, but Sabatini and Garrison Fall by the Wayside at Wimbledon

As usual, John McEnroe had plenty to deal with.

McEnroe, who came from two sets down to win in the first round, overcame his own inconsistency, a run-in with the umpire, and Richey Reneberg, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 7-5, Thursday to advance to the third round at Wimbledon.

“It’s not going to be easy,” McEnroe said. “When people play me, they really want to do well. I’m just happy I won. That’s the important thing.

“He tried hard, I tried hard. He had games where he got hot. I had games where I got hot. I just got hotter at the right time.”

On the women’s side, third-seeded Gabriela Sabatini of Argentina and fifth-seeded Zina Garrison weren’t as fortunate.

Ros Fairbank of South Africa, a solid grass-court player, beat Sabatini, who is more at home on clay, 6-4, 6-3.

Louise Field of Australia, ranked 121st in the world, blew a 5-0 lead in the third set before ousting Garrison, 1-6, 6-2, 7-5, on her fifth match point.

“The chances were there,” Garrison said. “I just didn’t take them. It’s not like she blew me off the court.”

Garrison dominated play before slumping in the second set. She rallied from five games down to tie it, 5-5, in the final set and survived a fourth match point when Field served her eighth double-fault in the 10th game.

But Field broke Garrison and then served out the match, winning on her fifth match point with a backhand volley.

McEnroe, seeded fifth, lost five straight games as Reneberg wrapped up the second set and took a 1-0 lead in the third on McEnroe’s fifth of eight double faults.

Upset at losing his serve, McEnroe tossed his racket during the changeover. When umpire Bruno Rebeuh of France gave him a code warning for racket abuse, McEnroe exploded.

“That took a lot of guts,” McEnroe yelled at Rebeuh. “An excellent decision. I bet it says in the rule book that if he throws his racket, call racket abuse. An excellent choice.”

McEnroe was able to keep his temper in check the rest of the way and turned his game around just when it looked as if he might be eliminated in the second round at Wimbledon for the second year in a row.

With Reneberg leading, 3-2 and 40-0, in the third set, McEnroe battled back to send the game to deuce four times, then broke to even the match when Reneberg hit a volley long.

McEnroe held serve, broke at love for a 5-3 lead and served out the set on his fifth of eight aces, then broke in the eighth and 11th games of the fourth set. He served out the match at love, winning on a backhand volley.

In other men’s matches, third-seeded Boris Becker of West Germany defeated Richard Matuszewski, 6-3, 7-5, 6-4; No. 13 Aaron Krickstein beat Javier Frana of Argentina, 4-6, 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), 7-5, in the completion of a match suspended by darkness Wednesday; No. 16 Amos Mansdorf of Israel downed Eric Jelen of West Germany, 4-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2; No. 15 Mikael Pernfors of Sweden was upset by Peter Lundgren, another Swede, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2, 6-4; seventh-seeded Miloslav Mecir of Czechoslovakia rallied to eliminate Australian Mark Kratzmann, 6-7 (7-5), 4-6, 6-1, 7-5, 7-5, and fourth-seeded Mats Wilander ousted Karel Novacek of Czechoslovakia, 6-3, 6-0, 6-3.

In a match halted by rain, second-seeded Stefan Edberg of Sweden was leading Todd Woodbridge of Australia, 6-4, 6-4, 1-6. The match between ninth-seeded Michael Chang and Ronald Agenor of Haiti was postponed until today.

In other women’s matches, fourth-seeded Chris Evert rallied from a 5-1 deficit in the first set to defeat Hu Na, 7-5, 6-1; seventh-seeded Arantxa Sanchez of Spain beat Julie Halard of France, 6-4, 6-3; ninth-seeded Natalia Zvereva of the Soviet Union beat Eva Paff of West Germany, 6-2, 6-3; Mary Joe Fernandez ousted Louise Allen, 6-4, 6-1; No. 15 Lori McNeil beat Martina Pawlik of West Germany, 6-1, 6-3, and No. 14 Hana Mandlikova of Australia downed Catherine Suire of France, 6-1, 6-4.

Second-seeded Martina Navratilova rallied to even her match with Kristine Radford of Australia, 3-6, 6-3, before it was halted by rain.