TENNIS ROUNDUP : Rubin Eliminated, Not Intimidated

Chanda Rubin wasn’t nervous about facing Gabriela Sabatini. Maybe she should have been.

Sabatini eliminated the promising 16-year-old in 69 minutes Thursday with a 6-2, 6-2 third-round victory in a Virginia Slims tournament at Boca Raton, Fla.

“She’s not that intimidating,” said Rubin, a high school junior from Lafayette, La. “She’s just another player. That’s how I wanted to think about her.”

Sabatini is the seeded second and is a two-time defending champion in the tournament. She looked the part against the youngest player in the draw.

“I felt I was in control of the match all the time,” Sabatini said.

Rubin turned professional at last year’s U.S. Open and has climbed to 94th in the computer rankings.

Third-seeded Mary Joe Fernandez swept past No. 10 Laura Gildemeister of Peru, 6-3, 7-5; fourth-seeded Conchita Martinez of Spain beat No. 11 Kimiko Date of Japan, 6-1, 7-6 (7-3); fifth-seeded Nathalie Tauziat of France eliminated No. 12 Radka Zrubakova of Czechoslovakia, 6-2, 7-6 (7-4); seventh-seeded Zina Garrison of Houston beat No. 15 Brenda Schultz of the Netherlands, 7-5, 4-6, 6-3; No. 16 Barbara Rittner of Germany defeated No. 6 Leila Meskhi of Georgia, 6-2, 6-3, and Amanda Coetzer of South Africa upset eighth-seeded Judith Wiesner of Austria, 6-3, 6-1.

Patrick Baur of Germany upset second-seeded Christian Bergstrom of Sweden, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2, in the second round of the Copenhagen Open.

In another surprise, Jacco Eltingh of the Netherlands beat fifth-seeded defending champion Jonas Svensson of Sweden, 6-3, 6-7 (7-4), 6-4.