TENNIS ROUNDUP : Graf Makes Victory Look Easy; Sabatini Struggles but Wins

Steffi Graf needed only 51 minutes, but Gabriela Sabatini struggled through 2 1/2 hours and two tiebreakers Wednesday to advance in the Toray Pan Pacific Open at Tokyo Metropolitan Gym.

Graf, seeded No. 1, beat German compatriot Anke Huber, 6-2, 6-3, in a second-round match.

Fifth-seeded Sabatini of Argentina outlasted Australia’s Rachel McQuillan, 6-7 (7-5), 7-6 (7-3), 6-3, in a first-round match.

Huber, a 16-year-old playing Graf for the first time, started with a double fault but held serve in the first game. Graf broke serve in the third and fifth games. In the second set, she had six aces. Still, Huber impressed her. “She played better than I had expected,” Graf said.

Sabatini and McQuillan played mostly from the baseline, with Sabatini breaking serve twice in the last set.

“I didn’t quite have the confidence to win the match because of the fast surface,” Sabatini said.

In other first-round matches, Kathy Rinaldi beat Japan’s Maya Kidowaki, 3-6, 7-5, 6-2; Jo Durie defeated British compatriot Monique Javer, 6-3, 6-4, and Robin White beat Japan’s Tamaka Takagi, 2-6, 7-6 (10-8), 6-4.

Eighth-seeded Larisa Savchenko of the Soviet Union defeated Shaun Stafford, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2, in the second round of a $100,000 women’s tournament at Auckland, New Zealand. Because of rain, the only other singles match completed was a victory by Cristina Tessi of Argentina over Cammy MacGregor, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4.