Tennis Roundup : Lendl Returns With Win but It’s a Struggle

Ivan Lendl didn’t expect it to be easy, and it wasn’t.

Lendl, the world’s No. 1 tennis player, returned from a two-month layoff caused by a foot injury and struggled past Christian Bergstrom of Sweden, 7-6, 7-5, Wednesday in the $492,500 Monte Carlo Open in Monaco.

“I always have a hard time on clay at the beginning,” Lendl said.

Lendl had no problems with his right foot, where he had a stress fracture in a bone under the big toe, but his forehand gave him trouble.

Bergstrom broke Lendl’s serve three times in the first set, but Lendl blasted two aces while winning the tiebreaker, 7-1. Lendl again lost his service three times in the final set but broke Bergstrom’s serve four times and held serve at love to win the match.

In other matches, second-seeded Mats Wilander of Sweden downed Niclas Kroon, also of Sweden, 6-4, 6-2; fourth-seeded Yannick Noah of France overcame Guy Forget, also of France, 5-7, 7-6, 6-3; No. 6 Kent Carlsson of Sweden defeated Ricki Osterthun of West Germany, 6-2, 6-4; No. 7 Martin Jaite of Argentina beat Alberto Mancini, another Argentine, 6-2, 6-1; No. 9 Andrei Chesnokov of the Soviet Union ousted Ulf Stenlund of Sweden, 6-4, 6-3, and Jordi Arrese of Spain completed a 6-2, 6-7, 6-4 victory over No. 13-seeded Yugoslav Slobodan Zivojinovic in a match suspended late Tuesday.

Top-seeded Martina Navratilova defeated Hu Na, 6-4, 6-2, in a second-round match of the $250,000 Virginia Slims of Houston tournament.

In other matches, No. 2-seeded Chris Evert beat Laxmi Poruri, 6-1, 6-4, and No. 4-seeded Zina Garrison eliminated Cammy MacGregor, 6-2, 7-6. After her match, Evert said she would marry former U.S. Olympic skier Andy Mill July 30 at the Polo Club in Boca Raton, Fla.