TENNIS ROUNDUP : Vajda Upsets Chesnokov in New Zealand

Marian Vajda of Czechoslovakia upset second-seeded Andrei Chesnokov of the Soviet Union 6-1, 5-7, 7-5 today in the second round of the New Zealand Open tennis championship.

Vajda, ranked 83rd in the world, used a strong all-court game to take a 6-1, 5-2 lead before Chesnokov, ranked 12th, recovered his composure.

Chesnokov rallied to win five straight games and take the second set, but Vajda got his third service break in the 11th game of the decisive set and was able to serve out the match on his fifth match point.

Mary Joe Fernandez, last year’s Australian Open finalist, began her injury-delayed tuneup for next week’s tournament by beating Patricia Hy of Canada 6-4, 6-1 today in the second round of the New South Wales Open tennis tournament.

The top-seeded Fernandez, who lost the final to Steffi Graf at Melbourne last January, needed just over an hour to beat Hy.

Fernandez underwent hand surgery in the second week of December for an infected wart.

On the men’s side, second-seeded Jonas Svensson of Sweden dropped a 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 decision to countryman Magnus Gustaffson, and Michael Stich of Germany upset fourth-seeded Jakob Hlasek of Switzerland 3-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-4.

Only two seeds--third-seeded Guy Forget of France and sixth-seeded Aaron Krickstein of the United States--remain in men’s play going into the third round Thursday.

Goran Ivanisevic outlasted Boris Becker 5-7, 7-5, 6-4 in a two-hour, 20-minute match at the six-man Rio Challenge exhibition tournament today at Adelaide. The loss followed Becker’s defeat by Swede Magnus Larsson last week in the Australian Hardcourt championships.