TENNIS ROUNDUP : Top-Seed Lendl Defaults in New South Wales Open

Ivan Lendl, complaining of an unspecified stomach injury, defaulted his first-round match today at the New South Wales Open tennis tournament.

Lendl, who had split the first two sets of his match with Australia’s Wally Masur before calling it quits, said he fully expected to compete in the Australian Open beginning Jan. 14 in Melbourne.

“I think it will be fine in a couple of days,” Lendl said after undergoing an ice treatment for an hour. “It just happened today, but I think with some work it will be OK.”

The tournament’s top seed said he expected to resume play within a few days.

Lendl won the opening set 6-2 and had just dropped the second 7-6 (7-5) when he told the chair umpire that he could not continue. It surprised the thousands at center court at the White City complex in downtown Sydney, as well as Masur.

“I noticed in his last two serving games that he was rolling his shoulder and didn’t have a lot on the ball,” Masur said. “But I wasn’t really sure until we shook hands at the end of the second set. You don’t deride any satisfaction as if you’ve won the match.”

Lendl said he was in considerable pain and discomfort in the second set.

“I felt a pain whenever I hit the ball,” Lendl said. But when asked for the exact nature of the injury, he would only say it is in the stomach area.

American qualifier Chuck Adams of Pacific Palisades, Calif., upset third-seeded Richard Fromberg of Australia 6-3, 6-4 today in the first round of the New Zealand Open tennis championship.

“This has been my best win in a tournament so far,” Adams said. “I proved something to myself. That my game is working and a good hard practice schedule at home is paying off.”