Tennis Roundup : Evert and Shriver Win as U.S. Defeats Japan

Chris Evert and Pam Shriver breezed to straight-set victories Tuesday as the top-seeded United States beat Japan in a first-round match of the Federation Cup tennis championships at Vancouver.

Evert, ranked No. 3 in the world, defeated Etsuko Inoue, 6-2, 6-4. Shriver, the No. 5 player who was pressed into action as Martina Navratilova’s replacement, beat Akiko Kijimuta, 7-6, 6-1. Navratilova, the top-ranked player in the world, is nursing a sprained ankle.

Evert teamed up with Zina Garrison to defeat Inoue and Kijimuta, 6-2, 7-5, in the doubles match and give the United States a 3-0 sweep. It was the first time Garrison, ranked No. 15 in the world in doubles, and Evert had ever been paired.

The United States will face France in the second round.

Also advancing into the second round were fourth-seeded Bulgaria, seventh-seeded Italy and unseeded Britain.

Bulgarian sisters, Manuela and Katerina Maleeva, didn’t lose a game in sweeping the singles from unseeded Greece. Manuela beat Angeliki Kanellopoulou, 6-0, 6-0, and Katerina beat Olga Tsarbopoulou by the same score.

Italy got past Belgium when Sandra Cecchini defeated Sandra Wasserman, 6-1, 6-0, and Raffaella Reggi downed Anne Devries, 6-2, 7-5.

Britain got past Chile as Sara Gomer beat Carolina Espinoza, 6-3, 6-1, and Jo Durie defeated Macarena Miranda, 6-2, 6-1.

Third-seeded Jimmy Connors routed Kelly Jones, 6-3, 6-4, and seventh-seeded Jimmy Arias eliminated Michael Kures 7-5, 6-2, to move into the third round of the $232,000 D.C. National tournament at Washington.

Todd Witsken, seeded 12th, routed Ken Flach in straight sets while Bill Scanlon continued a string of early upsets by ousting 11th-seeded Jaime Yzaga in first-round play.

Witsken, of Carmel, Ind., needed just 68 minutes to eliminate doubles specialist Flach of Sebring, Fla., 6-2, 6-1.

Top-seeded Ivan Lendl and second-seeded Boris Becker got byes and were scheduled to play their first singles matches today.

Mats Wilander and Kent Carlsson survived first-round scares against unseeded opponents in the $202,500 Swedish Open at Bastad.

Wilander, ranked second in the world and top-seeded in this clay-court event, struggled in the chilly evening conditions before outlasting Diego Perez of Uruguay, 7-5, 4-6, 6-3.

Second-seeded Stefan Edberg, another Swedish Davis Cup player, advanced with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over countryman Stefan Eriksson.