TENNIS ROUNDUP : For Byron Black, Newport Grass Is Like Being at Home

Byron Black of Zimbabwe, comfortable on grass courts, defeated Kenny Thorne of Smyma, Ga., 6-3, 6-2, Monday to advance to the second round of the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships at Newport, R.I.

“We have grass courts back at my father’s farm in Zimbabwe,” said sixth-seeded Black, a former three-time All-American at USC who is ranked 108th in the world.

The $200,000 tournament at the Newport Casino is the lone American grass-court tournament on the Assn. of Tennis Professionals tour.

In the only other match involving a seeded player, No. 7 Nicolas Pereira of Venezuela lost to Sandon Stolle of Australia, 6-2, 6-3.

Ranked 124th in the world, Stolle is the son of Fred Stolle, who was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame, situated at the Casino, in 1985.

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Karel Novacek of the Czech Republic and Australia’s Wally Masur became the first seeded players to advance in the Swiss Open at Gstaad.

Third-seeded Novacek overwhelmed Spanish qualifier Sergio Gomez-Barrio, 6-1, 6-1, in the clay-court tournament.

Fourth-seeded Masur beat Germany’s David Prinosil, 6-3, 7-6 (7-2).

Unseeded Carl-Uwe Steeb of Germany upset sixth-seeded Frenchman Arnaud Boetsch, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4, and plays Marc Goellner next. Goellner beat Amos Mansdorf of Israel, 7-6 (7-4), 6-4.

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Top-seeded Henrik Holm of Sweden was beaten by Austria’s Horst Skoff, 6-4, 7-6 (7-4), in the first round of the Swedish Open at Stockholm.

Seventh-seeded Nicklas Kulti of Sweden beat Jonas Bjorkman, 6-4, 6-1, and No. 6 Richard Fromberg of Australia beat Jordi Burillo of Spain, 6-1, 6-4.