Masur’s Win Ties France, Australia : Davis Cup: Defending champion West Germany overcomes Becker’s absence to take 2-0 lead over the Netherlands.

Australia’s Wally Masur, down two sets to one, came back for a victory over Yannick Noah of France today and tied the first-round Davis Cup competition between their countries at 1-1.

Masur, Australia’s highest-ranked player at 36th in the world, beat Noah 4-6, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 in the second singles match at Perth, Australia.

Henri Leconte opened for France with a 6-3, 7-5, 6-3 victory over Darren Cahill.

Noah, ranked 16 in the world, will team with doubles specialist Guy Forget against John Fitzgerald and former Wimbledon champion Pat Cash, making a comeback after rupturing an Achilles’ tendon, in the doubles Saturday. The reverse singles will be played Sunday, with Masur playing Leconte and Noah taking on Cahill.

In another Davis Cup match, defending champion West Germany overcame the absence of Boris Becker and took a 2-0 lead over the Netherlands at Bremen, West Germany today.

Carl-Uwe Steeb defeated Michiel Schapers 6-1, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, and Eric Jelen took the second singles of the best-of-five series by beating Tom Nijssen 7-6 (7-5), 7-5, 3-6, 6-3.

Becker, the Wimbledon and U.S. Open champion who led West Germany to Davis Cup triumphs in 1988 and 1989, quit last week, leaving Steeb as its No. 1.

“I felt under pressure but it was also nice to carry the responsibility,” Steeb said.

Jelen, usually Becker’s Davis Cup doubles partner who has rarely played singles for the team, needed two hours and 43 minutes to beat Nijssen.

At Bagliari, Sardinia, Paolo Cane dropped the first two sets to Sweden’s Jonas Svensson but fought back for a 3-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-1 victory that gave Italy a 1-0 lead in the first round.

Mats Wilander was leading Italy’s Omar Camporese 6-4, 6-4, 5-7 when their second singles match was suspended because of darkness. It will resume Saturday.

Sweden, a Davis Cup finalist the last two years, is playing without Stefan Edberg, who said before he was injured during the Australian Open finals that he would not play against Italy.

At Barcelona, Thomas Muster and Horst Skoff won their opening Davis Cup singles matches today and gave Austria a 2-0 lead over Spain.

Muster defeated Emilio Sanchez 1-6, 6-2. 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, and Skoff defeated Sergio Bruguera 6-4, 7-5, 6-0.

Yugoslavia staved off elimination in its Davis Cup competition with New Zealand when Slobodan Zivojinovic and teen-ager Goran Ivanisevic teamed for a doubles victory today at Christchurch. They downed Kelly Evernden and Steve Guy 7-5, 6-3, 6-7 (4-7) 7-5.

New Zealand won the opening two singles matches Thursday.