Women fight it out

Press, 4 June 1982, Page 28

Women fight it out

NZPA-Reuter Paris Two Americans on one side and two Czechoslovaks on the other fight it out today for places in tomorrow’s women’s final of the French Open Tennis .

By a quirk of the draw, the top seed, Chris Evert Lloyd, who has not dropped a set on her progress through to the semi-finals, faces Andrea Jaeger. .

On the other side of the fence Hana Mandlikova, of Czechoslovakia, last year’s champion who is seeded fifth, meets the Czechoslovak-born Martina , Navratilova, the twice Wimbledon champion who is now a naturalised American. • 1 The women’s contest has proved the seedings committee right,.with four of the top five seeds making it through tothe semi-finals, but things have not gone quite the way

they predicted in the men’s competition.

Jimmy Connors, the top seed for the one major title he has not won, completely lost the form he had shown in earlier rounds to crash out yesterday in spectacular style to Jose Higueras of Spain, the fourteenth seed.

Connors had ;no answer to .the Spanish clay court specialist’s immaculate game. He went down 2-6, 2-6, 2-6, and as he said ruefully afterwards: “I got my ass kicked today." Earlier, Yannick Noah, the eighth seeded Frenchman carrying hopes of a homegrown victory, could not muster the energy to overcome Argentina’s Guillermo Vilas, the third-seed, who beat him 7-6, 6-3, 6-4. ' In England meanwhile the men's and women’s singles championships followed a parallel course at Beckenham as six seeds in each

event survived through to the quarter-finals. . Of the two Britons on show, only Buster Mottram lived to fight another dayr but was once again involved in a match of some controversy.

His compatriot, Mark Blincow, was beaten by the top seed, Brian Teacher, leaving Mottram to defend his nation’s active interest in the tournament against the New Zealander, David Mustard.

On Tuesday, in the second round, the British No. 1 had all manner of difficulties with interferences from spectators, the. public address system, and a grunting opponent, Steve Meister. Yesterday, he remained cool against the New Zealand No. 4, who was nothing like as hot as his name might suggest. Mottram gained a 6-2, 6-4 third round win while Mustard disputed calls and accused the umpire of bias.