AUSTRALIAN OPEN : McEnroe and Lendl Destroy Opponents

John McEnroe, enjoying his best start to a Grand Slam tournament in many years, gave his second tennis lesson in two days today to reach the third round of the Australian Open.

Repeating his first-round performance, the fourth-seed conceded just four games against Alex Antonitsch, bewildering the Austrian with a display of touch and vision most players on the circuit can only dream of.

“If I keep playing like this I’ll be difficult to beat, I just hope it keeps going,” said McEnroe after his 6-1 6-2 6-1 victory on center court. “It’s a great start, I haven’t started like this in a Grand Slam for a while.”

McEnroe’s deft display, which reduced the frustrated Antonitsch to serving underarm for one point in the second set, contrasted with world No. 1 Ivan Lendl’s workmanlike demolition of Tomas Carbonell of Spain.

The Czechoslovak defending champion won 6-4, 6-2, 6-3 and admitted he was short of his best form. “I could always hit the ball better but I suppose as long as you’re winning it doesn’t matter how you hit the ball,” he said.

Lendl, who almost collapsed last year during his semifinal on a furnace-like center court, started a fashion trend with his hat, with several other players wearing the same type of headgear to ward off the hot sun.

Antonitsch, ranked 98th in the world, found himself down 5-0 after just 13 minutes against the expressionless McEnroe.

The three-time Wimbledon champion, who has yet to win in Melbourne, appeared to amble around the court while Antonitsch raced about on fruitless chases in the hot sun.

Ignoring Lendl’s now-familiar French Foreign Legion-type hat in favor of a green bandanna, McEnroe even had an answer to Antonitsch’s underarm serve, winning the point to take a 5-2 lead in the second set.

Antonitsch’s patience finally ran out in the first game of the third set when an apparent service ace was called out by umpire Richard Ings.

The Austrian, fined $350 in the first round for an audible obscenity, received a warning for unsportsmanlike behavior after angrily querying the decision.

While McEnroe was taking the fast route, 11th-seeded Pam Shriver took the slow one.

Shriver had to play for almost two hours in the midday heat to beat Australian Nicole Provis 1-6, 6-2, 9-7 in a second-rounder.

“She gutsed it out,” said Provis, a former French Open semifinalist. “She fought right to the end.”

Shriver, from Lutherville, Md., was ranked No. 4 in the world in 1987, but injuries and poor form have seen her slip to 19th.

“You look for crumbs until you can find your rhythm,” she said. “You just look for any catalyst for change. At least I’m hanging in there, being a competitor. You have to keep playing when things aren’t going well, and sometimes things change.”

No. 15 seed Thomas Muster won a slam-bang match with Christo van Rensburg of South Africa 1-6, 7-5, 7-5, 2-6, 8-6, while 13th seed Sergi Bruguera of Spain was beaten 6-4, 6-3, 1-6, 6-4 by Sweden’s Mikael Pernfors.

Yannick Noah of France, conqueror of Lendl on his way to victory in the New South Wales Open last week, sent Ronald Agenor of Haiti packing with a 7-6, 6-3, 6-3 win.