No. 1 seed ousted

Press, 29 December 1987, Page 36

No. 1 seed ousted

PA Wellington The No. 1 seed, Jonas B. Svensson, of Sweden was sensationally ousted from the BP tennis •nationals in yesterday’s first round by the Kiwi wild-card entry David Lewis. It took Lewis just one hour to demolish Svensson, ranked thirtieth in the world, 6-4 6-1. The tournament, which runs until Sunday, is included for the first time on the Nabisco International Grand Prix circuit and Svensson has lost the opportunity to further his impressive climb up the world ladder.

Wellington’s infamous wind proved a major factor during the day, hindering all competitors and restricting the type of match that could be played. It blew at a steady 25 knots for most of the

day and frequently gusted higher. The wind clearly hampered the Swede’s big serving game and while he said he had never played in such conditions, he did not make excuses. “You don’t get beaten by wind,” he said. "He (Lewis) played a lot better than I thought he would. “You cannot win by not trying. I learnt a lesson there.” Lewis, brother of New Zealand’s tennis stalwart of the early 80s, Chris, and ranked a lowly 419 in the world, gained entry to the tournament only when granted one of the four wild cards issued last Thursday. Had he not received that he would have been forced to play the qualifying tournament held over the week-end. The difficult conditions

went some way towards! reducing the gap in rankings and ability, he said. * "But I concentrated> well and played steadily. I mixed it up and just hung J in there really.” ’ Results.—David “Lewis! (N.Z.) bt Jonas B. Svensson-b (Sweden) 6-4, 6-1; Bruce Berlin (N.Z.) bt Andrew Castle; (Gt Britain) 6-3, 2-6, 7-5;. Andrei Chesriokov-4: (U.S.S.R.) bt Shugko Mat-" suoka (Japan) 6-3, 7-5; Brod Dyke (Aust.) bt Andrei 01khovski (U.S.S.R.) ’ 6-1, 6-4; Todd Witsken (U.S.) bt Hooe Van Boeckel (Holland) 4-6, 6-2, 6-3; Chris Pridham (Canada) bt Glen Michlbata (Canada) ’ 6-2, 0-6, 6-2; Tim Wilkison-5 (U.S.) bt Magnus Tideman (U.S.) 6-4, 7-6; Menno Oosting (Holland) bt Brett Steven (N.Z.) 7-5, 6-1; Jeremy Bates-7 (Gt Britain) bt Marc Flur (U.S.) 6-2,; 3-6, 6-4; John Frawley-3 (AUSt) bt Robert Green (U.S.) 6-4, 3-6, 8-6; Stephen Shaw (Gt Britain) bt Steve Guy (N.Z.) 6-4, 6-2. . .