TENNIS ROUNDUP : Becker, Stich Give Germany a Davis Cup Win

Boris Becker and Michael Stich came through for Germany in the first round of Davis Cup play Sunday, giving their country a 3-2 victory over Italy at Dortmund, Germany.

Germany came into the day’s matches trailing 2-1, but Becker beat Omar Camporese, 3-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-3, to even the competition, then Stich defeated Paolo Cane, 7-6 (7-4), 6-7 (1-7), 7-5, 6-1, for the victory.

Germany, playing for the first time since reunification, faces Argentina in the next round.

Becker, who became the world’s No. 1-ranked player by beating Ivan Lendl in the Australia Open final a week ago, had to battle back to beat Camporese.

“In the last three games I was in ecstasy,” Becker said.

In World Group Davis Cup action at Perth, Australia completed a 5-0 sweep of Belgium as Richard Fromberg beat Eduardo Masso 6-3, 1-6, 6-3, and Wally Masur beat Filip Dewulf 6-1, 6-2. Both reverse singles were reduced to best-of-three sets after Australia clinched the match the day before.

Australia will face either Israel or France in the next round.

Yugoslavia completed a 4-1 victory over Sweden at Zagreb, Yugoslavia. Goran Ivanisevic beat Stefan Edberg, 6-4, 6-2, in the final match of the day after Yugoslavia had clinched the victory on Saturday.

In the next round, Yugoslavia will face Czechoslovakia, which completed a 4-1 victory over Austria at Prague. Milan Srejber beat Alex Antonitsch, 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (6-3), to cap off the victory.

Argentina wrapped up a 4-1 victory over New Zealand when Javier Frana beat Brett Steven, 6-3, 6-3, at Christchurch, New Zealand.

Spain beat Canada, 4-1, at Murcia, Spain, in Canada’s first World Group appearance. The Canadians avoided a shutout when Andrew Sznajder beat Emilio Sanchez Vicario, 7-5, 5-7, 6-3.

Spain advances against the winner of the United States-Mexico match, which was postponed because of the threat of terrorism. It has been tentatively rescheduled for March 29-31.

Israel-France was another World Group match postponed, and six zonal matches were postponed because of the Persian Gulf War: Bahrain-Bangladesh, Sri Lanka-Syria, Singapore-Kuwait and Malaysia-Saudi Arabia in the Asia-Oceania group, and Egypt-Senegal and Algeria-Ivory Coast in the African zone.

Eva Sviglerova beat Andrea Strnadova, 6-2, 0-6, 6-1, in an all-Czechoslovakian final at a $100,0000 women’s tournament at Auckland, New Zealand. Sviglerova, 19, earned $18,000.