Tennis Roundup : Haiti’s Agenor Upsets Wilander in Third Round of the Italian Open

Ronald Agenor of Haiti, ranked 45th in the world, shocked defending champion Mats Wilander of Sweden, 6-3, 7-5, Thursday in the third round of the $825,000 Italian Open men’s tennis championships.

The loss, which took 90 minutes, was the second stunner for Wilander on clay in the last month. At Monte Carlo in April, he was eliminated by Italy’s Claudio Pistolesi in the third round.

At Rome, the second-seeded Wilander lost the first set quickly and fell behind, 5-2, in the second set. He came back to tie the set at 5-5 but lost his service in the final game.

Agenor said he never lost his confidence when Wilander began to rally in the second set.

“It was me who was making the points from the beginning of the match,” he said. “He was only able to come back because I made mistakes.”

Among those reaching the quarterfinals were top-seeded Ivan Lendl of Czechoslovakia and ninth-seeded Andre Agassi. Lendl defeated Guy Forget of France, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3; Agassi beat Thomas Muster of Austria, 6-4, 7-5.

Agassi, winner of his last two tournaments, ran his record to 15-0 on clay this year.

“I wasn’t feeling too strong tonight,” Agassi said. “I’m glad I got it over with in two sets.”

Fourth-seeded Yannick Noah of France, fifth-seeded Kent Carlsson of Sweden, sixth-seeded Andres Gomez of Ecuador, Jaime Yzaga of Peru and Guillermo Perez-Roldan of Argentina rounded out the quarterfinals.

Noah downed Tomas Smid of Czechoslovakia, 6-2, 6-2; Carlsson beat Ricki Osterthun of West Germany, 6-1, 6-0; Gomez defeated Jim Pugh, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5; Yzaga upset seventh-seeded Anders Jarryd of Sweden, 6-1, 7-5, and Perez-Roldan beat Thierry Tulasne of France, 7-5, 7-5. Tulasne had eliminated third-seed Boris Becker Tuesday.

Radka Zrubakova of Czechoslovakia upset Hana Mandlikova, 7-6, 7-5, in the third round of a $300,000 women’s tournament at West Berlin. Top-seeded Steffi Graf easily defeated fellow West German Silke Meier, 6-2, 6-1, and Claudia Kohde-Kilsch, also of West Germany, downed Argentina’s Mercedes Paz, 6-2, 6-3.