TENNIS ROUNDUP : Gorman Says Davis Cup Returning to La Costa

The first-round matches of the 1990 Davis Cup competition between the United States and Mexico will be played Feb. 2-4 at the La Costa Hotel and Spa, U.S. Captain Tom Gorman said Thursday.

La Costa held Davis Cup matches in 1981 and 1982.

“That’s what I heard from the U.S. Tennis Assn.,” Gorman said. “I don’t know when the USTA is going to make an announcement.”

“There are still things to be done to make it a fact,” said Irv Grossman, who promoted the three previous Davis Cup matches in San Diego County.

Defending champion John McEnroe, top-seeded Ivan Lendl and Miloslav Mecir all struggled Thursday before reaching the quarterfinals of a $1-million tournament at Antwerp, Belgium.

Michael Chang, meanwhile, breezed with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Andres Gomes of Ecuador.

Quick on the baseline and accurate with his groundstrokes, the fourth-seeded Chang had no problems earning a quarterfinal match against Argentina’s Alberto Mancini.

McEnroe, seeded second, overcame a mediocre second set and had to battle to beat France’s Henri Leconte, 6-1, 3-6, 8-6.

Lendl beat Soviet Andrei Chesnokov, 7-5, 0-6, 6-2, and Mecir got past Aaron Krickstein, seeded seventh, 5-7, 7-6, 6-0.

Top-seeded Steffi Graf easily defeated Claudia Kohde-Kilsch, 6-0, 6-3, and advanced to the quarterfinals of a women’s tournament at Brighton, England.

In other matches, second-seeded Manuela Maleeva of Bulgaria defeated Judith Wiesner of Austria, 7-6 (7-5), 6-1; fourth-seeded Jana Novotna of Czechoslovakia beat Jana Pospisilova, 6-3, 6-3; fifth-seeded Hana Mandlikova of Australia defeated Laura Golarsa of Italy, 7-5, 6-3, and eighth-seeded Raffaella Reggi of Italy beat Katrina Adams, 6-2, 6-2.