TENNIS ROUNDUP : Garrison Ill, Loses at Houston

Third-seeded Zina Garrison was upset by Gigi Fernandez and forfeited her doubles event Thursday after she apparently suffered severe stomach cramps and became ill at the Virginia Slims of Houston tournament.

Fernandez, of Aspen, Colo., defeated the third-seeded Garrison, 6-7, (5-7), 6-1, 7-5, in the second round of the $350,000 tournament.

Garrison led, 5-3, in the third set, but lost the next four games as she became visibly ill and tired, bending over between points to try to catch her breath.

“I haven’t talked with her yet, but from what the doctors say, she is suffering from stomach cramps, back cramps and she is throwing up,” Garrison’s coach Sherwood Stewart said.

“I think she obviously is feeling the pressure of playing in her hometown, and the emotion and the weakness she has been feeling finally caught up with her.”

Garrison was rushed to a hospital after she left the court and began vomiting in the locker room. Tournament officials initially did not know what was wrong with her.

Fernandez said she was shaken by Garrison’s illness.

“It’s probably the first and the last time in my career that we’ve played and she’s tired and I’m not. She’s one of the fittest players on the tour and she can outplay anybody,” Fernandez said.

Garrison had not lost to Fernandez in seven previous matches.

Earlier Thursday, sixth-seeded Sandra Cecchini of Italy defeated Cammy MacGregor of La Quinta, 6-1, 6-3, to move into the quarterfinals against defending champion Katerina Maleeva of Bulgaria.

Goran Prpic of Yugoslavia eliminated fifth-seeded Guillermo Perez-Roldan of Argentina, 6-1, 4-6, 6-1, leaving one seeded player, Karel Novacek of Czechoslovakia, in the Nice Open at Nice, France.

Novacek was seeded fourth behind Guy Forget of France, Andrei Chesnokov of the Soviet Union and Andres Gomez of Ecuador.

In the other second-round matches Thursday, Renzo Furlan of Italy defeated Argentina’s Jordi Arrese, 6-4, 7-5, and Horacio De La Pena beat his Argentine countryman, Eduardo Bengoechea, 6-4, 3-6, 6-0.

Yayuk Bazuki of Indonesia upset third-seeded Catarina Lindqvist of Sweden, 6-4, 6-2, in a tournament at Bangkok. Also advancing to the quarterfinals was Rika Hiraki of Japan, who defeated Australia’s Kristine Radford, 6-3, 6-1.

The United States Tennis Assn., chose the grass courts of the Casino in Newport, R.I., scene of the International Tennis Hall of Fame, as the site for the second-round Davis Cup match between the United States and Spain, June 14-16.