TENNIS ROUNDUP : Thigh of Relief: Edberg Leads Sweden to Cup

Stefan Edberg shook off a thigh injury and helped Sweden to a 2-1 victory over defending champion Yugoslavia in the final of the World Team Cup Sunday at Dusseldorf, Germany.

Edberg, the world’s No. 1 player, beat Goran Ivanisevic, 6-4, 7-5, after teammate Magnus Gustafsson defeated Goran Prpic, 6-2, 3-6, 6-4.

Prpic and Slobodan Zivojinovic won the doubles, defeating Edberg and Gustafsson, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Saturday, it appeared that a strained thigh muscle might keep Edberg out of the final. But the two-time Wimbledon champion showed no sign of injury Sunday.

Edberg needed only 34 minutes to win the first set against Ivanisevic. The second set was tied, 5-5, but Edberg won the last two games.

Gustafsson defeated Prpic in 1:44. After they split the first two sets and Gustafsson went ahead 4-3 in the third set, play was suspended for about 45 minutes because of rain. Gustafsson overpowered Prpic when play resumed and won the match.

Italy’s Paolo Cane rallied to beat Sweden’s Jan Gunnarsson, 5-7, 6-3, 7-5, and win the ATP tournament at Bologna, Italy.

The victory marked Cane’s return to form after a difficult year that included an operation on his spine.

Cane lost the first set in 57 minutes, but he came back to win the second set in 33 minutes. The third set lasted more than two hours, as Cane had eight match points.

Manuela Maleeva-Fragniere of Switzerland defeated Helen Kelesi of Canada, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, and won the European Open at Geneva, Switzerland.

For the second-seeded Maleeva-Fragniere, who also won this tournament in 1989, it was her second title this year. She won the Austrian Indoors in February.

Radka Zrubakova of Czechoslovakia won two tiebreakers and defeated Rachel McQuillan of Australia, 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (7-3), to win a women’s tournament at Strasbourg, France.

Both players were unseeded. It was the second title for Zrubakova, 20, who is ranked 40th in the world.

Zrubakova now goes to the French Open, where she meets top-seeded Monica Seles, the defending champion, in the opening round.