TENNIS / AUSTRALIAN OPEN : Sabatini Struggles to Victory

She blew a huge lead at the French Open and failed to wrap up a Wimbledon final. This time, Gabriela Sabatini promised herself, she was not going to have another Grand Slam collapse.

Sabatini, who led, 5-1, in the final set before losing four consecutive games, wasted five match points before struggling to a 6-1, 3-6, 7-5 victory over Natalia Medvedeva on Thursday in the second round of the Australian Open.

“I had some difficult moments,” the fourth-seeded Argentine said. “It felt like I couldn’t finish the match. For a moment at 5-5, I was thinking I could lose this match. I had match point and I couldn’t win, and finally I did it.”

Top-seeded Steffi Graf had little trouble advancing with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over German compatriot Barbara Rittner, but No. 2 Arantxa Sanchez Vicario of Spain needed eight match points to finish off Shi-ting Wang of Taiwan, 6-2, 6-4.

No. 3 Conchita Martinez of Spain was a 6-3, 6-0 winner over Amy Frazier, and sixth-seeded Mary Joe Fernandez defeated Caroline Kuhlman, 6-4, 6-1.

No. 13 Helena Sukova, a finalist at the U.S. Open last year, lost to Sandrine Testud, 6-4, 6-3.

Chanda Rubin, whose only other appearance in the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament was at the 1992 U.S. Open, defeated Kristine Radford, 6-3, 7-6 (7-1), and Lindsay Davenport beat Elena Makarova, 6-1, 6-2.

Ivan Lendl, seeded 15th, defeated Paul Haarhuis, 4-6, 6-2, 6-2, 6-4, and No. 10 Magnus Gustafsson dropped only six games while posting a 6-2, 6-2, 6-2 victory over Joern Renzenbrink. But No. 11 Marc Rosset was upset by Grant Stafford, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2, 6-1.

MaliVai Washington, who upset No. 2 Michael Stich in the first round, needed five sets to complete a second-round victory over Andrei Cherkasov that was halted Thursday by rain and darkness.