Kruger Surprises Spirlea in 3 Sets

In the first two months of 1996, Joannette Kruger seemed to be nearing a breakthrough in her tennis career, reaching a then-career high rank of 27. That all changed in March when Kruger left the court at Indian Wells in an ambulance after collapsing during a match because of heat exhaustion. Injuries and illness caused Kruger to spend much of the year away from the tour and her ranking plummeted to No. 176.

This year the 24-year-old South African is on her way back.Her rank has jumped to No. 26, and Tuesday she upset No. 7-seeded Irina Spirlea, 3-6, 6-2, 6-4, at the Toshiba Tennis Classic at the La Costa Resort and Spa, avenging a loss to the Romanian earlier this year at the Pan Pacific.

Aside from that match, the first round generally followed form. In the featured evening match, No. 6-seeded Steffi Graf, who has played in four Toshiba tournaments and won them all, defeated Julie Halard-Decugis, 6-2, 6-2. This is her first Toshiba appearance since winning the tournament in 1994 over Arantxa Sanchez Vicario and only her seventh tournament appearance this year after a nine-month break from the tour for knee surgery.

“I’m getting better and better,” said Graf, who won in 56 minutes. “I’m getting used to playing matches.”

In her loss, Spirlea served five aces, including two consecutive in the second game of the third set. However, Kruger broke the Romanian’s serve six times, including service breaks to finish the second and third sets.

“I lost the first set, but I felt very in control of the points,” Kruger said. “It was me who made the final error on every point. . . . I knew that if I didn’t make that error, the set would have been mine.”

The match was the first for Spirlea since Wimbledon. Kruger had played at Prague, Warsaw and Stanford, with minimal results in the intervening weeks.

“I felt myself being very nonassertive in these previous matches and I figured the only way I am going to win this match was to go for it, because, with Irina, if you give her a little time on all her shots, she can blow you off the court,” Kruger said.

In other matches, Wimbledon finalist Nathalie Tauziat of France defeated qualifier Shi-Ting Wang, 7-5, 3-6, 6-1; No. 5 seeded Conchita Martinez of Spain beat Rolling Hills’ Kimberly Po 6-4, 6-2; Belarus’ Natasha Zvereva defeated Croatia’s Mirjana Lucic, 7-6, 6-3, and Chanda Rubin swept Indonesia’s Yayuk Basuki, 6-0, 6-1. Amy Frazier, the only seeded qualifier to advance to the main draw, defeated Janet Lee, 7-6, 6-2.

Qualifier Jennifer Capriati lost to Japan’s Ai Sugiyama, 5-7, 6-2, 6-2. To give a sense of how far Capriati’s game has to go, the 22-year-old termed the defeat “a good loss” but disappointing and said she was “pretty pleased” with the way she was playing.

“There’s tougher players in the draw, and you’re getting tougher players in the early rounds,” said Capriati, who won this tournament in 1991 and ’92.

Capriati has already used her three main-draw wild cards for the year, but still has the option to use two more qualifying wild cards.

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Toshiba Tennis Classic

TODAY’S SINGLES MATCHES

* 11 a.m., Center Court

Iva Majoli vs. Joannette Kruger.

Martina Hingis (1) vs. Natasha Zvereva.

* 1 p.m., Center Court

Steffi Graf (6) vs. Ai Sugiyama.

Mary Pierce vs. Conchita Martinez (5).

* 7 p.m., Center Court

Sandrine Testud vs. Monica Seles (4).