Leconte crashes out of Open

Press, 17 January 1989, Page 38

Leconte crashes out of Open

NZPA-Reuter Melbourne

The sixth seed, Henri Leconte, overweight and mentally exhausted, crashed out of the Australian Open championships in the first round yesterday. Leconte, often called the musketeer of French tennis because of his dashing style, was totally bereft of ideas and move-, ment against Sweden’s Jan Gunnarsson who won 6-4, 6-3, 6-2, in 87 minutes of tennis played at practice game pace. Like Leconte, West Germany’s Sylvia Hanika, seeded No. 11 in the women’s competition, paid the price for playing too much tennis, collapsing 6-3, 6-1 against Ellse Burgin, of the United States, on the opening day of the first Grand Slam tournament of 1989.

Leconte, the losing finalist in the 1988 French Open, never looked like avoiding his second consecutive first round defeat by a Swede once he lost the first set on hot, blustery court two.

He looked disgusted with his display and told journalists later he needed a break from the game after an extremely tough 1988. “I have no condition, no feeling for the ball — I’m not happy with the way I’m playing,” Leconte said later. “I feel mentally tired of the game. I’ve played 13 weeks in a row, jumping from plane to plane, all those destinations. I knew one day I was going to be tired.” The defending champion, Mats Wilander — looking anything but the world No. 1 — rode his luck to defeat fellow Swede Tobias Svantesson in five sets. -

Wilander scraped through 6-3, 2-6, 7-5, 5-7, 6-3 in a lacklustre performance riddled with unforced errors from the normally metronomic three-time champion. The No. 14 men’s seed, Jonas Svensson, of Sweden, booked his place in the second round with a 6-2, 6-0, 6-4 victory over Menno Oosting, of the Netherlands.