TENNIS / EVERT CUP : It Won’t Get Any Easier for Austin

With top-ranked Steffi Graf not scheduled to play Monday, the spotlight at the Evert Cup fell on a former No. 1 player, Tracy Austin.

Austin defeated Radka Zrubakova of Slovakia, 6-2, 5-7, 6-3, at Hyatt Grand Champions to set up a probable second-round matchup against Graf, who will play Gigi Fernandez today.

Graf and Austin haven’t faced one another since Austin defeated the German, 6-4, 6-0, at Filderstadt, Germany, in Graf’s first professional match.

That was in October of 1982.

“I’d won the tournament two or three times before,” said Austin, who actually was the four-time defending champion, “and I played this little skinny kid I’d never heard of before. I think she got the wild card and she was 13 years old. . . .

“She was extremely confident walking on the court and she started hitting the ball so hard. I thought, ‘How can a little skinny kid like that hit the ball so hard?’ ”

Although Austin won easily--she is one of only 10 players to win a set at love against Graf--she was impressed. “I knew she had tremendous potential,” Austin said. “I don’t know that I could have said, ‘This girl’s going to be No. 1 in two or three years,’ or whatever it was, but I knew that she was going to be extremely good. Just the confidence level--that was the key. She just walked out there and knew what she wanted to do.”

Does she look forward to the rematch?

“Yeah, probably like going to the dentist,” she said.

In other matches, No. 5 Helena Sukova and No. 7 Sabine Hack lost. Elena Likhovtseva beat Sukova, 6-1, 7-5; and Iva Majoli beat Hack, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (7-4).

Austin struggled to close out her match against Zrubakova, losing four consecutive games after building a 5-3 lead in the second set.

“When you’re up, (6-2), 5-3, you nail the coffin closed,” Austin said. “And I let her get back in the match a little bit. I really think that’s from (not) being in that situation more times (in the last year).”

She regained control by breaking Zrubakova in the first game of the third set and 30 minutes later, turned her thoughts toward Graf.

“I’ll have absolutely no pressure,” Austin said. “I’ve (been a TV commentator on) enough matches that I know what I want to try to do. It’s doing them that I’ve got to do.”