TENNIS ROUNDUP : Gilbert Earns 2-Hour Victory Over Rostagno

After needing two hours to dispose of Derrick Rostagno, Brad Gilbert wondered just who is running the world tennis computer.

Second-seeded Gilbert advanced with a 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-2) victory Thursday night in the Volvo tournament at San Francisco, but Rostagno made him work for it.

“He has no business being ranked (No.) 80 in the world,” Gilbert said. “I think when he plays guys above him, he plays some really loose shots.

“He’s got to be able to start beating guys he’s supposed to beat, and his game will get better.”

In another night match, Jimmy Connors defeated Bryan Shelton, 6-4, 6-7 (7-4), 6-4.

Gilbert, ranked 25th, was behind, 5-0, in the first set before he got going. He got even in the second set and won six consecutive points to take the third-set tiebreaker.

In other matches, Richey Reneberg defeated Dave Randall, 6-7 (7-5), 6-2, 6-2, and Chuck Adams got past Alex O’Brien, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2.

Nathalie Tauziat of France upset fifth-seeded Manuela Maleeva-Fragniere of Switzerland, 7-6 (7-5), 6-3, in the second round of the Toray Pan Pacific Open at Yokohama, Japan.

In other matches, top-seeded Steffi Graf routed Natalia Zvereva of Belarus, 6-2, 6-0; third-seeded Martina Navratilova defeated Yayuk Basuki of Indonesia, 6-2, 6-1; fourth-seeded Jana Novotna of the Czech Republic beat Mana Endo of Japan, 6-4, 6-2, and qualifier Yone Kamio of Japan upset Gigi Fernandez, 6-4, 6-3.

“I played better than (Wednesday) because it’s the first match on that court,” Graf said. “Today I didn’t make many mistakes.”