Tennis : Lendl, Connors Scramble to Win in Florida Heat

Ivan Lendl and Jimmy Connors reached the quarterfinals of the $1.8-million Lipton International Tennis Tournament at Boca Raton, Fla., Monday. But neither was thrilled with the degree of difficulty in getting there.

Lendl beat Jimmy Arias, 6-1, 7-5. But the No. 1-ranked player in the world and the top-seeded player here had six match points against Arias in the second set that he let slip away in the grueling heat and humidity of South Florida. The second set ended up taking 74 minutes, much of it after Lendl had moved out to a 5-3 lead.

“It’s very irritating to me that I can’t finish off matches,� Lendl said. “But I felt that, even were I to lose the second set, I’d be in good shape because he was doing all the running.�

What Lendl went through was a walk in the park compared to Connors’ match. Connors zipped past Thierry Tulasne of France in the first set, 6-1, and had a 5-2 lead in the second when things began to crumble.

“It should have been over in 52 minutes,� Connors said, “but then I had a concentration lapse. He makes a few shots, I miss a few shots and it’s a struggle. It stinks.�

What stunk, in Connors’ mind, was losing the second set, 7-5, and having to go all the way to a tiebreaker in the third to win. The final scores: 6-1, 5-7, 7-6 (7-3).

In other fourth-round matches in men’s singles, Stefan Edberg ousted Marty Davis, 6-2, 6-3; Yannick Noah beat Jan Gunnarsson, 6-1, 7-6 (7-2); Joakim Nystrom beat Pablo Arraya, 6-4, 6-4, and Guy Forget beat Michael Robertson, 6-3, 6-4.