Mayotte Gets Second Chance and First Pro Win

It was Scott Davis he was playing, but Sunday Tim Mayotte was remembering Sweden’s Bjorn Borg.

“I remember what Borg said when he won Wimbledon,” Mayotte said. “It’s part preparation, part effort and part luck.”

The luck came in the third set when umpire Charles Beck overruled a call that would have given Davis a service break and possibly a straight-set victory in the $1.8-million Lipton International Players Championships at Delray Beach, Fla. But they replayed the point and Mayotte eventually held his service.

He broke Davis in the sixth game and went on to win, 4-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4.

With the victory, the first of his professional career, Mayotte earned $112,500, more than he won in all of 1984. Davis took home the second-place prize of $56,250, the biggest payday of his career.

“The only other time I came back from 0-2 in sets was Wimbledon in 1982 against Sandy Mayer,” Mayotte said.

Davis said his loss after being two sets up “was a combination of fatigue and loss of concentration. My adrenaline carried me early.”

When he closed out the nearly 3 1/2-hour match with a smash, Mayotte sank to his knees and clutched his hands to his face. Then, sitting on the sidelines before the awards ceremony, he cried, burying his head in his towel.

Sunday’s final marked the first time in the open era that two unseeded players have reached the championship match.

Ranked 45th in the world on the computer, Mayotte had reached the final with a strong service return. And it was that phase of his game that was missing in the first two sets in the battle against his former Stanford teammate.

Davis, 27th in the world, parlayed his strong serve, crisp service returns and accurate passing shots into the lead after two sets. But then Mayotte started his comeback.

Later, Martina Navratilova became the only player to win three titles in the same tournament since Billie Jean King won the singles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles at Wimbledon in 1973. Navratilova paired with Puerto Rico’s Gigi Fernandez to beat Kathy Jordan and Czechoslovakia’s Hana Mandlikova, 7-6, 6-2, in women’s doubles.

Saturday, she defeated Chris Evert Lloyd, 6-2, 6-4, for the singles crown, then teamed with Switzerland’s Heinz Gunthardt for a 6-2, 6-2 win over Poland’s Wojtek Fibak and Canada’s Carling Bassett in mixed.

Altogether, Navratilova won $139,200--$112,500 for singles, $22,500 for women’s doubles and $4,200 for the mixed.

At Salt Lake City, No. 1-seeded Bob Duesler of Newport Beach defeated No. 3-seeded Herm Ahlers of Dana Point, 6-4, 2-6, 7-6, in the semifinals of the 45-to-50 age division of the U.S. Seniors Indoor Championships.

Duesler will meet No. 4-seeded Len Saputo of Walnut Creek, Calif., in today’s final. Saputo defeated defending champion and No. 2-seeded Les Dodson of Kalamazoo, Mich., 6-2, 6-2.

In the 50-to-55 division, No. 1-seeded King VanNostrand of Bridgewater, N.Y., who hasn’t lost a set in the tournament, defeated Ron Livingston of Los Angeles, 6-2, 6-1, and Whitney Reed of Los Angeles beat Gordon Davis of Santa Monica, 6-1, 7-6.

In the 55-and-over division, Bill Bonham of Houston defeated Ed Kauder of Beverly Hills, 6-7, 6-1, 6-4, and Jason Morton of Sun Lake, Ariz., beat Bill Davis of Palm Springs, 6-3, 7-5.