THE SIDELINES : Gustafsson Wins Tennis Opener

Magnus Gustafsson of Sweden opened the $1.1-million European Community Championship of Tennis today, defeating one of the two qualifiers, Czech-born Belgian Libor Timek, 6-1, 6-4.

The other qualifier, Todd Woodbridge of Australia, upset Karel Novacek of Czechoslovakia, 6-4, 6-3.

Ivan Lendl and John McEnroe, who won the first eight Antwerp tournaments, are missing this year, but the field included Stefan Edberg of Sweden, the top-tanked player in the world, and four others from the top dozen players at the moment: Andres Gomez, Brad Gilbert, Goran Ivanisevic and Andrei Chesnokov.