WIMBLEDON ’90 : She Makes It a Weird Science : Women: Gavaldon, the most superstitious player in tennis, moves into third round.

Angelica Gavaldon won her second-round match Wednesday at Wimbledon, which means she soon will be kneeling in the bathtub again.

It was a routine day for Gavaldon, the 16-year-old from Coronado, Calif., who beat Sara Gomer, 7-5, 0-6, 7-5, then reaffirmed her position as possibly the quirkiest player in tennis.

In her first season as a professional, Gavaldon has proved to be a veteran of superstitions. At first, the nature of her superstitions was fairly straightforward, but they seem to be growing more strange.

When she reached the quarterfinals of the Australian Open in January as an amateur, Gavaldon would eat dinner at the same restaurant each night and have a chocolate chip cookie for dessert. Then she would braid her hair next to the sink in the bathroom each night.

At Tampa in April, Gavaldon took the same seat in the car that brought her to her matches.

Now, Gavaldon seems to have refined her superstitions.

“This is really weird,” she said.

Gavaldon is staying with a friend of her mother. Once at night and again in the morning, Gavaldon and her mother’s friend kneel in the bathtub.

Before each match, she eats a baked potato and sweet corn. After each match, Gavaldon showers in the same stall in the locker room.

“If it’s busy, I’ll wait,” she said.

Gavaldon continues her practice of throwing away the clothes she wears if she loses a match, but she hasn’t had to do that here yet. A baseliner such as Gavaldon doesn’t always do well on the grass courts, yet she has been able to come from behind in both her matches.

Against Jana Pospisilova, Gavaldon trailed, 0-5, in the second set and came back for a 6-3, 7-5 victory. Gomer won eight consecutive games starting the second set when Gavaldon told herself something: “Wake up!”

Before coming to Wimbledon, Gavaldon lost in the first round in two tournaments and an exhibition, the first three matches she played on grass.

She said she is feeling more comfortable now.

“I think I’m starting to like it more, now that I’m winning,” Gavaldon said.

For luck, she is wearing the same large hoop earrings she wore at the Australian Open, which may not be enough to get her past Patty Fendick in the third round. But who knows? Maybe Fendick isn’t kneeling in her bathtub.

Steffi Graf, Monica Seles, Zina Garrison and 14-year-old Jennifer Capriati scored straight-set victories, but Hana Mandlikova lost, 6-3, 6-3, to Ann Henricksson, to end her singles career.

Mandlikova, 28, announced last week that she will play only doubles after Wimbledon.

“No, I really tried, I tried to play,” Mandlikova said.

“I don’t think . . . I am able to win another Grand Slam, and that’s why I made the decision,” she said. “And so, it’s not interesting for me anymore if I know honestly I cannot win another Grand Slam.”

Graf, of course, says she is fairly confident of winning another. She breezed past 19-year-old Meredith McGrath, 6-3, 6-0. McGrath turned professional after her freshman year at Stanford.

Graf plays Claudia Kohde-Kilsch in the third round and continues to head for a fourth-round showdown against Capriati.

Already the youngest woman to win a match at Wimbledon, Capriati beat Julie Halard, 6-2, 7-6 (7-2) and said afterward she thought she might win Wimbledon in her first try.

“Yeah, I mean, if I didn’t feel like that, I mean why should I even try for it?” Capriati said. “I mean, that’s the way I go in every tournament.”

Seles won her 34th consecutive match, 6-3, 7-5 over Camille Benjamin. Garrison scored a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Cecilia Dahlman of Sweden.