TENNIS ROUNDUP : Connors Knocked Out of Tel Aviv Tournament

Gilad Bloom, who isn’t even the local favorite, beat Jimmy Connors, the drawing card for the $155,000 Riklis Israel Tennis Center Classic at Tel Aviv, in a hard-fought second-round match, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5, Wednesday.

The unseeded Bloom, the second-ranked Israeli in the field behind third-seeded Amos Mansdorf, took 3 hours 20 minutes to beat the 40-year-old Connors before 3,000 at the Ramat Hasharon stadium.

The seventh-seeded Connors was denied a repeat of a point awarded to Bloom when the ball exploded. Connors protested the denial by tossing the deflated ball at the referee and was issued a warning for impudence.

“I started playing when Jimmy Connors was No. 1 and I have always adored him,” the left-handed Bloom said.

Bloom will face another left-hander, Austria’s Thomas Muster, in the quarterfinals today. Muster defeated Belgium’s Xavier Daufresne, 7-5, 6-4.

Martina Navratilova struggled with the returns and passing shots of Patricia Hy but rallied to beat the Canadian, 7-6, 6-1, in the first round of the Porsche Grand Prix at Filderstadt, Germany.

Navratilova, seeded third, trailed 4-1 in the first set.

Top-seeded Gabriela Sabatini cruised into the quarterfinals by beating Natalia Medvedeva of Ukraine, 6-4, 6-4, and Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario of Spain, seeded second, ousted Sabine Appelmans of Belgium, 7-6, 6-2.

Top-seeded Stefen Edberg of Sweden beat Jim Grabb, 6-4, 6-4, as Grabb let five break points slip away in the second-round match of the Seiko Super tournament at Tokyo.

Michael Chang, seeded second, ousted Russian qualifier Andrei Olhovskiy, 6-2, 6-3.

Fourth-seeded Goran Ivanisevic of Croatia had 13 aces and overwhelmed Richey Reneberg, 6-3, 6-4.

Top-seeded Malivai Washington struggled through the first two sets before finally beating Jordi Burillo of Spain, 3-6, 7-6, 6-2, in the first round of the $310,000 Bolzano Indoor tournament in Italy.