Texan tennis prodigy

Press, 2 June 1982, Page 46

Texan tennis prodigy

NZPA Paris Zina Garrison, the 18-year-old girl from Texas who .until last year was learning her tennis on public courts, gets the chance today to put her name in the record books in a French Open championship quarter-final match against Martina Navratilova. Miss Garrison disposed of a couple of seeds on the way to the quarter-finals and is proving herself a respectable opponent rather thari a “flash in the pan.”. Navratilova, the Czecho-slovak-born, former Wimbledon champion who now lives in the United States, acknowledges Garrison's strengths but says she has a weak backhand.

~ The/ pair' will be playing for. the right' to meet the winner of the-match between third-seeded Tracy Austin, playing in the tournament for the first time, and Czechoslovakia’s Hana Mandlikova, , last year’s champion who is seeded fifth. They will be playing on the centre court today. The other women’s semifinalists t are already known.. Top-seeded Chris Evert Lloyd, maintaining the form she showed when she won the Italian Women’s Open last month, cruised through with a 6-2,. 64 victory over, unseeded Lucia Romanov, of Rumania, while fourth seed Andrea Jaeger’ put out the

1978 champiori,' ' Rumania’s Virginia Ruzici, 6-1, 6 : 0. Jimmy Connors, seeded first in the men’s singles and showing impressive form, though he has not been properly stretched as yet, disposed of the fifteenth seed Chip Hooper, 6-1, 6-0, 6-4, yesterday. He will meet Jose Higueras, of Spain, who beat Eliot Teltscher of the United States, 6-4, 6-2, 6-0. Mats Wilander, the excit'ing 18-year-old Swedish prospect who put out second seed Ivan Lendl, of Czechoslovakia,’ two days ago, gets another chance to prove his worth when he-takes on the vastly experienced Vitas Gerulaitis, who on his day is virtually unbeatable.