Czech tennis struggle

Press, 26 July 1986, Page 76

Czech tennis struggle

NZPA-Reuter Prague

An erratic Helena Sukova struggled to overcome the Australian, Elizabeth Minter, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, yesterday as the second-seeded Czechoslovakia clinched its place in today’s semi-finals of the Federation Cup women’s team tennis tournament.

Sukova, Czechoslovakia’s No. 2, raised doubts about her reliability with 53 unforced errors as she overcame Minter in lb 50min under a heavy grey sky. The Czech No. 1, Hana Mandlikova, also needed three sets to beat the Australian veteran, Wendy Turnbull, 6-1, 3-6, 6-1.

The seventh seed, Argentina, struggled to beat Austria, which unex-

pectedly beat Canada on Thursday.

Mercedes Paz beat Judith Poelzl, 6-4, 6-2, but Gabriela Sabatini, ranked tenth in the world, was 23 down to Petra Huber in the third set before clinching a 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 win. The top seed, the United States, and the third seed, West Germany, both had rest days. They will play their quar-ter-finals today against Italy and Bulgaria respectively. Martina Navratilova, the Americans’ leading player who left Czechoslovakia in 1975, took her team-mates on a tour of Prague and her hometown of Revnice, 30km south-west.

The mainly Czech crowd, awaiting the start

of the home team’s doubles match against Australia on centre court, crowded round the No. 1 court four deep to catch a view of the SabatiniHuber duel.

0 Steffi Graf, West Germany’s top woman player, was taken to hospital yesterday for X-rays after a metal table crashed on to her foot at the Federation Cup.

Officials said Graf was walking from the centre court stands, where she watched Hana Mandlikova, of Czechoslovakia, defeat Wendy Turnbull, of Australia, when a gust of wind caught a large umbrella fixed to the top of a table. The table landed on Grafs foot. Indications were that there was no fracture. •