TENNIS ROUNDUP : Without Becker, West Germany Trails

Argentina took a 1-0 lead over defending champion West Germany after the opening match of their Davis Cup quarterfinal Friday at Buenos Aires when Alberto Mancini defeated Jens Worhmann, 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (7-2).

Argentina’s top player, Martin Jaite will face West Germany’s top player, Carl-Uwe Steeb, in the second singles of the best-of-five match, put off until today because of the length of the first match and the threat of rain.

The start of the Mancini-Worhmann match was delayed by rain and lasted 4 hours, 35 minutes.

Mancini, ranked No. 16 in the world, was expected to dominate Worhmann, ranked 83rd. He was picked to play singles only after teammate Michael Stich became ill.

Worhmann, playing his first Davis Cup match, played well. Down 5-4 in the fourth set, he staved off match point and forced the game to four deuces before winning. The last two sets were decided on tiebreakers Mancini won both, 7-2.

Wimbledon champion Boris Becker, the star of West Germany’s Davis Cup team the past two years, decided not to play this year.

Top-seeded Martina Navratilova won her first-round match in a $250,000 tournament at Houston, defeating Bettina Fulco of Argentina, 6-0, 6-1.

In other first-round matches, which were delayed two days by rain, third-seeded Arantxa Sanchez Vicario of Spain beat Gretchen Magers, 6-3, 6-3; Mary Lou Daniels defeated Sylvia Hanika of West Germany, 6-4, 6-4, and Laura Gildemeister of Peru beat Isabel Cueto of West Germany, 6-2, 7-5.