Even Court 13 Doesn't Rattle Edberg : Wimbledon: There's no jinx on the top men's and women's seeded players, all of whom advance except Garrison. Lendl retires in fourth set.

By THOMAS BONK

June 30, 1992 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

WIMBLEDON, England — At Wimbledon, the only thing farther from Centre Court than Court 13 is the parking lot. But Court 13 is where two-time Wimbledon champion Stefan Edberg played his fourth-round match here Monday.

Edberg usually springs his volleys onto the soft grass of Wimbledon’s more centrally located, proper venues, such as Centre Court and Court 1. Finding an outer court could be a difficult assignment for a top player, who usually gets choice court assignments.

But at least Edberg knew about where Court 13 was.

“I saw it once from the balcony,” he said.

So he had no problem finding it?

“No, I had help,” he said. “I had an escort out there.”

And on a sunny, humid day, Edberg moved from Court 13 and into the quarterfinals. The second-seeded Swede knocked off countryman Henrik Holm, 6-3, 6-4, 6-7 (7-1), 6-3, on a busy day at the All England Club, where the only upsets were that John McEnroe won without so much as a stir--not counting the rackets he threw--and that it didn’t rain again.

Actually, there was one surprise. Perennial Wimbledon wallflower Ivan Lendl hurt his back and retired in the fourth set of his match with Goran Ivanisevic.

Lendl was trailing Ivanisevic, 6-7 (9-7), 6-1, 6-4, 1-0, when he told chair umpire Dana Loconto, “That’s enough.” And so ended Lendl’s 13th pursuit of the one Grand Slam title that has eluded the 32-year-old Czechoslovak.

Lendl released a statement through the All England Club that he had felt a sharp pain in his lower back early in the third set and couldn’t move properly after that.

Ivanisevic, hardly sympathetic, said Lendl’s back would have made no difference, that Lendl is always going to be treated like a weed on the grass courts of Wimbledon.

“He’s never going to win Wimbledon,” Ivanisevic said. “Every time, somebody is going to show up and beat him. It doesn’t matter, first round or final.

“It’s not his game. He’s coming in (to the net) because you come in on the grass. That’s why. But when he’s playing on the hard court or on the clay he’s never come in, only to shake a hand.”

But as Wimbledon said adieu to Lendl, former champions McEnroe, Edberg and Michael Stich served notice that they plan to stay around awhile.

Three-time winner Boris Becker had a chance to join them, but blew a couple of chances and failed to finish off Wayne Ferreira before darkness, and the match was called just after 9 p.m., tied at two sets.

There was no such drama in the women’s matches, where the only upset was posted by Natalia Zvereva, who toppled 13th-seeded Zina Garrison, 6-2, 3-6, 6-1.

Zvereva will play Steffi Graf in the quarterfinals, the winner to face the winner of today’s confrontation between Jennifer Capriati and Gabriela Sabatini. Top-seeded Monica Seles scored a straight-set victory over Gigi Fernandez and plays Nathalie Tauziat in the quarterfinals.

Seles’ potential semifinal opponent--nine-time champion Martina Navratilova, stopped Indonesian badminton star Yayuk Basuki in straight sets and takes on Katerina Maleeva in the quarterfinals.

McEnroe toyed with Andrei Olhovskiy, a 26-year-old chess-playing Russian qualifier, and hung up a 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 (12-10) decision that moved him into a quarterfinal matchup with Guy Forget.

That match is scheduled for Wednesday, which should give McEnroe plenty of time to reassess his position, which he continues to downplay.

“I’m still in, and if a couple of guys go down, anything can happen,” he said. “I still think Becker and a number of other players . . . I’m the lowest on the list.”

Few could have felt lower Monday than Jeremy Bates, who blew a one-set lead, a match point, lost six points on net cords and fell to Forget, 6-7 (12-10), 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (7-2), 6-3.

Against Becker, Ferreira won the first set, 6-3. Becker won the next two, 6-3, 6-4, and lost the fourth, 6-7 (8-6), even though he had served for the match at 5-3 and had held a match point in the tiebreaker.

The winner gets Andre Agassi next. A quarterfinalist a year ago, Agassi got there again with a 7-6 (7-1), 6-1, 7-6 (7-0) victory over Christian Saceanu, one of three qualifiers who played and lost.

Becker, who is 8-0 in the fourth round here, also has never lost in the quarterfinals, which has prompted Agassi to do some serious thinking.

“If I were to play Boris, obviously I feel there’s more threat of getting beat, in the sense that he owns Centre Court here--he has for so many years,” Agassi said.

“(And) grass . . . would probably be his most dangerous surface, so if I can somehow neutralize that, I would be very pleased . . . and I don’t want to sound like I’m a big-time underdog.

“I feel like I would go out there and make him earn it.”

Stich, last year’s champion, earned a quarterfinal spot against Pete Sampras with a 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, 6-4, victory over Wally Masur. Sampras swept Arnaud Boetsch, 6-3, 7-5, 7-6 (11-9) to mark his furthest Wimbledon advance.

“Anything can happen now,” said Sampras, adding that he must return well against the hard-serving Stich.

“As big as he served and as well as he plays, he’s definitely capable of winning Wimbledon this year, too,” Sampras said.

Like Sampras, Edberg has moved swiftly, easily and virtually unnoticed through the bottom half of the draw, but the free ride ends now for both of them.

As for Edberg, he must stand there and try to do something with Ivanisevic’s serve. Ivanisevic had 27 aces against Lendl, inflating his total for the week to 110.

Ivanisevic had 32 aces in his last match with Edberg and won in four sets.

“Now it’s going to get really tough,” Edberg said. “But if I can get past the next one, I see no reason why I can’t get the next one and the next one after that.”

Wherever their next match is played, it won’t be on Court 13.