TENNIS ROUNDUP : Italy’s ‘Caratti Kid’ Scores Upset Over Lendl in Milan

Cristiano Caratti, the new star of Italian tennis, stunned top-seeded Ivan Lendl on Thursday, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (7-3), to reach the quarterfinals of the Milan, Italy, indoor tournament.

The unseeded “Caratti Kid” became the first Italian to beat Lendl in a Grand Prix event.

Caratti, 20, is ranked 79th in the world. Lendl, ranked No. 3 in the world, had won the Milan event three times.

Caratti used a strong backhand and sudden dashes to the net to win the second-round match in 2 hours 25 minutes at the Assago Forum.

The Italian, who reached the third round of the Australian Open last month, won match point with a precise volley as a crowd of 3,000 went wild.

“I could not get in,” Lendl said. “The Supreme (surface) was so quick. I would have needed 10 days to get used to this court.”

Third-seeded Andrei Chesnokov of the Soviet Union was downed by Sweden’s Jan Gunnarson, 6-4, 6-3. Gunnarson faces Swiss Jakob Hlasek in today’s quarterfinals.

Aaron Krickstein, the only American player to reach the quarterfinals, will play Germany’s Carl-Uwe Steeb, who defeated Karel Novacek of Czechoslovakia, 4-6, 7-6, 6-4.

David Pate rallied to oust second-seeded Andres Gomez of Ecuador from the Volvo-San Francisco tournament, 1-6, 6-4, 6-2.

Pate is ranked 97th, Gomez sixth.

“I feel lucky to have won it,” Pate said. “The way he started off, I could have been off the court in 35 minutes.”

In other second-round matches, John McEnroe downed Mark Kratzmann of Australia, 6-4, 7-6 (7-5); Darren Cahill of Australia defeated Guillaume Raoux of France, 5-7, 6-4, 6-3, and Wally Masur of Australia beat Ramesh Krishnan of India, 6-3, 6-3.