WOMEN’S TENNIS / LA COSTA TOURNAMENT : Graf Defeats Quentrec Despite Dizzy Spells

CARLSBAD —  Even a physically-subpar Steffi Graf was good enough to survive her first match Tuesday night in the $375,000 Mazda Tennis Classic at La Costa.

The world’s top-ranked women’s player suffered dizzy spells before and during her match against Karine Quentrec of France, but struggled to a 6-3, 6-2 victory and advanced to the third round. She had received a first-round bye.

Graf drew a crowd of 5,414 to the 5,800-seat stadium court, and she breezed through the match in 58 minutes. She had been scheduled to follow immediately with a doubles match, teamed with Rennae Stubbs against Jennifer Capriati and Magdalena Maleeva, but decided after her singles victory to withdraw.

“I’m still not feeling 100%,” Graf said. “I really don’t feel very good at all. It started on the plane here from Florida.

“At first I thought it was a toothache and I saw a dentist. Then I saw an ear, nose and throat doctor. They both said it was a blocked jaw.

“I have tomorrow off, so I should be able to go on with the tournament.”

Playing here for the first time since winning the title in 1989 and 1990, Graf served well but had an erratic ground game. Her serve was as fast as 106 m.p.h.

“I didn’t return well, and I made a lot of unforced errors,” she said. “A lot of times I hit the ball much too late.”

Said Quentrec, who is ranked 86th and had lost to Graf twice previously: “I played a good match, good tactical tennis. I was really happy with my serve. But if she wasn’t feeling well, it took away from the games I won.”

Kimberly Po, former UCLA standout from Rolling Hills who was seeded 13th, lost to Marketa Kochta of Germany, 6-3, 6-1.

Kochta is ranked 173rd in the world and had to win two qualifying matches to get into the tournament, but she held the upper hand all the way against the 60th-ranked Po.

Two other seeded players also lost. Angelica Gavaldon, No. 14, lost to Nanne Dahlman of Finland, 6-4, 7-6 (7-4), and Nathalie Tauziat of France, No. 8, lost to Elena Likhovtseva of the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan, 1-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2.

Likhovtseva, 17, who is ranked 244th, called her victory the biggest of her two seasons on the tour.

Twelfth-seeded Debbie Graham, a Stanford graduate from Fountain Valley, came from far behind to defeat Maureen Drake of Toronto, 4-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-3.

Graham was trailing by 4-1 in the second set after losing the first but, once she mounted a comeback, Drake lost her composure.

“She was playing really well,” Graham said. “But I knew when it was 4-1 that I was OK. I’d seen her up like that and lose. She just started freaking out, lucky for me.”