Top 3 Seeds Win Easily in Germany

Steffi Graf, Monica Seles and Gabriela Sabatini, the top three seeds, won in straight sets today at the German Open.

Graf needed just 42 minutes to defeat Italian qualifier Katia Piccolini, 6-0, 6-1, and move into the quarterfinals. The victory extended her winning streak to 64 matches.

Seles, the No. 2 seed from Yugoslavia, overwhelmed Nicole Jagerman of the Netherlands, 6-1, 6-0, in 45 minutes in the second round.

Sabatini, the No. 3 seed from Argentina, took two minutes longer to rout Elise Burgin of the United States, 6-2, 6-1, also in the second round, and hurried off to celebrate her 20th birthday.

But the quickest victory of the day went to Larisa Savchenko of the Soviet Union, who ousted Hana Mandlikova of Australia, the No. 15 seed, 6-3, 6-0, in 40 minutes.

Brad Gilbert led a parade of top seeds into the third round of the Italian Open in Rome with a 7-6, 6-4 victory today over unseeded Luis Mattar of Brazil.

Gilbert, the world’s fifth-ranked player, took a 5-0 lead in the first set tiebreaker, then let up before closing it out at 7-5.

Second-seeded Aaron Krickstein, another American, took just 60 minutes to dispense with Karel Novacek, 6-2, 6-2.

Andres Gomez, the tournament’s third seed, also advanced to the third round with a 7-6, 6-4 win over Italy’s Diego Nargiso.