TENNIS : Lendl Dominates Bergstrom in Grand Slam Second Round

Ivan Lendl swept into the second round of the Grand Slam Cup on Wednesday, and David Wheaton, Brad Gilbert and Aaron Krickstein also won to put five Americans among the final eight.

Lendl, seeded second in the $6-million event, beat Sweden’s Christian Bergstrom, 6-4, 6-0, and is the highest-seeded player remaining in the world’s richest tennis tournament. On Tuesday, top-seeded Stefan Edberg was upset by Michael Chang.

Wheaton gained the only break of the match in the eighth game of the third set to outlast Yannick Noah of France, 7-6 (7-2) 6-7 (5-7), 6-3. Gilbert beat Jonas Svensson of Sweden, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4, and Krickstein beat third-seeded Andres Gomez of Ecuador, 6-3, 6-4.

U.S. Open champion Pete Sampras, France’s Henri Leconte and Yugoslavia’s Goran Ivanisevic also are in the final eight.

Krickstein never faced a break point. He wasted his first match point by double-faulting but took the next when Gomez send a backhand wide.

The tournament includes 16 players with the best records in the Grand Slam events--the Australian, French and U.S. Opens and Wimbledon.

The winner gets $2 million. First-round losers get $100,000 and quarterfinalists get $300,000.

“I never think about the money during a match but when I was serving for the match at 5-3 in the third set, I literally started shaking,” Wheaton said. “I thought, ‘Boy, that’s $200,000 on the line.’ But I worked right through it.”

Wheaton will at least double his 1990 earnings.