TENNIS ROUNDUP : Capriati Takes Tiebreaker, Wins Round 1

Jennifer Capriati, playing her first match in Japan, beat Misumi Miyauchi of Japan, 6-4, 7-6 (7-1), in the first round of the Nichirei International Ladies Tennis Championships in Tokyo today.

Capriati, a 14-year-old Florida eighth-grader who is seeded sixth and ranked 12th in the world, took the first set by holding serve in the ninth game--with a service ace at game point--and breaking Miyauchi’s service in the 10th game.

After trailing 3-0 in the second set, the 19-year-old Miyauchi--ranked 266th in the world--rallied to send the set into a tiebreaker.

“I made some errors,” said Capriati, who took the tiebreaker, 7-1. “I played at 60 or 70%, not 100%.”

In other first-round matches, fifth-seeded Manuela Maleeva-Fragniere beat Tamaka Takagi, 6-0, 6-2, and seventh-seeded Helena Sukova defeated Andrea Leand, 6-2, 6-2.

Top-seeded Zina Garrison of the United States beat Sabine Sabas of France, 6-3, 6-3, today in the first round of the Bayonne Women’s Open in France.

Garrison, ranked No. 6 in the world, next faces Alexia Dechaume of France, who beat Argentina’s Frederica Haumuller, 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (7-5).

Second-seeded Nathalie Tauziat of France eliminated Maria Strandlund of Sweden, 6-4, 6-2.

Top-seeded Brad Gilbert trounced Peter Doohan of Australia, 6-0, 6-1, in the first round of the Queensland Open tennis tournament today in Brisbane, Australia.

Gilbert, ranked ninth in the world, will face Patrick Kuhnen of West Germany in the second round.

Top-seeded Andres Gomez of Ecuador was upset by France’s Jean-Philippe Fleurian, 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-3), in the first round of the Swiss Indoor men’s tournament in Basel, Switzerland, today.