2 Yanks Score Upsets in New South Wales

American qualifiers Pete Sampras and David Wheaton scored first-round upsets today in the New South Wales Open tennis tournament, Sampras ousting fourth-seeded Tim Mayotte and Wheaton beating sixth-seeded Andres Gomez.

Sampras, 18, from Rancho Palos Verdes, downed Mayotte 7-6 (8-6), 6-2, for his second career victory over Mayotte, ranked 12th in the world. Wheaton, 20, from Deephaven, Minn., scored a 7-5, 6-4 victory over Gomez.

The world’s top two ranked players, Ivan Lendl and Boris Becker, turned in easy victories on the artificial Rebound Ace surface.

Lendl, the top seed, scored a 6-1, 6-3 win over Canadian Andrew Sznajder, and No. 2 seed Becker, ousted Alexander Volkov of the Soviet Union 6-3, 6-2.

Other first-round winners included fifth seed Mats Wilander of Sweden, titleholder Aaron Krickstein of the United States and Yannick Noah of France.

Several upsets hit the women’s ranks, claiming third-seeded Helen Kelesi, fifth-seeded Pam Shriver, eighth-seeded Ros Fairbank and 12th-seeded Patty Fendick.

Top-seed Helena Sukova and second-seeded Jana Novotna, both of Czechoslovakia, won, as did Natalia Zvereva of the Soviet Union, Italian Raffaella Reggi and Hana Mandlikova of Australia.

In Adelaide, meanwhile, John McEnroe and Stefan Edberg breezed to victories today in the first two matches of the Rio Challenge tennis tournament.

McEnroe made quick work of France’s Henri Leconte 6-0, 6-2, and Edberg defeated Australian Darren Cahill 6-1, 6-3.

And in Auckland, New Zealand, Defending champion Ramesh Krishnan of India struggled past New Zealander Bruce Derlin 7-6 (9-7), 7-5 today to reach the quarterfinals of the New Zealand open tennis championship.

Third-seeded Magnus Gustafsson of Sweden, No. 5 seed Amos Mansdorf of Israel and eighth-seeded Scott Davis of the United States joined the unseeded Krishnan in the last eight.