TENNIS ROUNDUP : Seles Overcomes a Little Bump and Thumps Porwick

Top-ranked Monica Seles wasn’t about to take unseeded Monica Porwick of Germany for granted.

Seles admitted to a slight lapse in concentration early in the second set, but she reached the quarterfinals of the U.S. Women’s Hardcourt Championships Thursday with a 6-1, 6-4 victory.

“She is one of those players you have to watch for the upset,” Seles said.

“I was not going for my shots. I let her take control of the match. She’s a good player, and I was lucky to break back. I do need to take more control of the points.”

After breezing through the first set, Seles was broken twice in the second set and fell behind, 3-2.

Seles used two-handed groundstrokes and drives to take a 5-3 lead. Porwik, ranked 80th, held serve to make it 5-4 and fought off two match points before faltering.

Porwick said she lost the first set because of too many unforced errors, but challenged Seles in the second set “by waiting more for my chance.”

In today’s quarterfinals, Seles faces unseeded Erika deLone, who defeated Radka Zrubakova of Czechoslovakia, 6-4, 6-4.

In the other quarterfinal matches, second-ranked Steffi Graf of Germany faces seventh-seeded Susan Sloane, third-seeded Manuela Maleeva-Fragniere of Bulgaria meets sixth-seeded Lori McNeil and Eva Sviglerova of Czechoslovakia plays Julie Halard of France.

Sloane used a strong baseline game to defeat Ann Henricksson, 6-3, 6-1.