Tempers Flare as McEnroe, Lendl Advance to Final

The four best tennis players in the world convened here Saturday before a sellout Madison Square Garden crowd and a national television audience to play for pride and honor . . . and to get a chance at that $100,000 prize awaiting the eventual winner of the Volvo Grand Prix Masters tournament. So, did everybody have a nice day?

You kidding?

Mats Wilander, who battled John McEnroe for 6 1/2 hours the first time they met on a tennis court, lasted exactly one hour this time--falling, 6-1, 6-1, and then slipping into a funk over his lost and forgotten backhand.

McEnroe, after blasting Wilander with serves and groundstrokes, took time to blast the United States Tennis Assn. and a U.S. Davis Cup team sponsor. He called a letter reprimanding U.S. team members for their conduct against Sweden last month “one big joke,” and said USTA president Hunter Delatour should be embarrassed for agreeing with the essence of the letter.

Then, there was Ivan Lendl, knocking another chunk out of his Mr. Choke reputation with a 7-5, 6-7, 7-5 victory over Jimmy Connors and attributing his incentive to an intense disliking of his opponent. “You hate to lose to start with,” Lendl said. “You can triple it when you play someone who wasn’t treating you sportsmanlike before.”

And Connors, getting in the last shot, wondered if Lendl deserves “to be treated like a sportsman. I think anyone who has a reputation in big matches like he does has to prove himself to me first.”

Some hot tennis and some hotter tempers were served up before a capacity crowd of 18,741. After every one had retreated to neutral corners, the bottom line was this: Today at 9:30 a.m. (PST), McEnroe will attempt to defend his 1984 Masters championship against Lendl, who has reached the final round of this tournament for five straight years.

McEnroe owns an 11-9 career advantage over Lendl and has won six of their last seven meetings, although Lendl won his first Grand Slam title, the French Open, at the expense of McEnroe last spring.

To win again, Lendl says he has to “return his serve very well. If I can do that and break him, I’ll feel more comfortable than by relying on my serve and tiebreakers.”

Lendl had come to the Masters with supposedly a brand new look--from his new frame (trimmed to 168 pounds by a no-junk food diet) to his new confidence (buoyed by the French Open triumph) to his new wave tennis togs. But midway through the third set against Connors, it looked like Same Old Ivan out on the Garden floor.

Lendl had squandered a 6-5 lead in the second set, losing in a 7-5 tiebreaker, and was on the verge of collapse in the third, trailing, 5-2. An overwhelmingly pro-Connors crowd sensed another Lendl dive.

So did Connors.

As Connors later put it, “He is not known for his gutsy performances in the end.”

But this time, won the final five games--holding serve twice at love, breaking Connors at 30-40 and 15-40, and then closing out the comeback with a trademark forehand winner.

This was a victory Lendl intended to savor.

“All victories over Connors are important,” he said, “but this is one of the nicer ones. If I’m not mistaken, this is the first time when the match was so close that I’ve won it.”

This was also the first time Lendl had faced Connors since they played--and exchanged words--at London in November. Then, upset that he was losing and that Lendl was complaining about line calls, Connors pulled Lendl aside and asked him to “step outside.”

Lendl: “I don’t like losing to him. He was not kind to me at London.”

Connors: “If he’s carrying a grudge, that’s too bad about him. I don’t carry a grudge. Once the match is over, it’s over.”

Maybe. But if Lendl doesn’t care for Connors, it’s pretty obvious the feeling is fairly mutual. After Lendl won the first set Saturday, drilling a forehand at Connors and then raising a triumphant fist, Connors flashed Lendl an obscene gesture that later drew a $500 fine.

Connors dodged Lendl’s shot, but filed the moment away in his memory. “I’ll get the opportunity one day . . . “ he said afterward.

McEnroe’s victory over Wilander was the calm before the storm. Unlike the events to come in the Lendl-Connors duel, player relations were rather tame in the first semifinal.

Just a lot of McEnroe serves and forehands and backhands that Wilander did not know how to handle.

The sparks came afterward. McEnroe was asked about a letter written by Harry Merlo, president of Louisiana-Pacific Corp., a U.S. Davis Cup team sponsor. In the letter, Merlo criticized certain U.S. team members (that is, McEnroe and Connors) for their behavior during the Davis Cup final against Sweden, threatening to withdraw his sponsorship if a stricter code of conduct is not enforced.

“I think the whole thing is one big joke,” McEnroe said. “I think it’s very, very sad. Unbelievable. I’ve been playing Davis Cup for seven years, and after seven years I don’t think they should tell us how to act.”

McEnroe then zeroed in on Delatour, who had apologized for the on-court actions of the U.S. Davis Cup players at a banquet following the U.S.-Sweden final. “Hunter Delatour was really, really out of place,” McEnroe said.

McEnroe added that the U.S. may have to play its first 1985 Davis Cup match--against Japan--without Connors and himself. “The chances are good we’re not going to play Japan,” he said.

And, as for today’s Masters final:

“This is what I’ve been working for,” McEnroe said. “I’m glad I’m picking up my game. I’m glad that I’m playing better now.”

He sounded happy. Imagine that.