Tennis Roundup : McEnroe, Connors in Final

Top-seeded John McEnroe and second-seeded Jimmy Connors reached the final of the $315,000 Volvo Grand Prix tennis tournament at Chicago Saturday to set up their 30th career meeting.

McEnroe defeated Scott Davis, 6-4, 6-1, to win his 24th consecutive match of the year, while Connors ousted Andres Gomez of Ecuador, 6-4, 6-3.

McEnroe said he is looking forward to playing Connors.

“It’s pretty easy to get up for him,” said McEnroe, who has won the last eight times he’s faced Connors and holds a 17-12 edge. “He goes out and gives 100%. That’s what I respect about playing him.”

Saturday, McEnroe broke Davis’ serve in the first game of the first set en route to his 6-4 victory. He came up with another break in the third game of the second set. After that, Davis was unable to hold his serve again.

On the other hand, Connors had a much tougher time. He also scored the only service break in the first set by winning the first game. But he was on the verge of losing his service at 30-40 in the second game, and he was down break point in the 10th game of the first set.

In the second set, Connors broke Gomez in the third and fifth games and lost his serve in the eighth game before running out the 1 1/2-hour match.

The highlight of the McEnroe match, which lasted 1 hour 26 minutes, took place in the fifth game of the second set when the score went to deuce eight times.

“I never got easy points,” Davis said. “When he serves he gets easy wins, then he psychs up to break the other guy.”

Second-seeded Mats Wilander of Sweden defeated 17-year-old high school senior Aaron Krickstein of Grosse Pointe, Mich., 6-2, 6-3, in the $325,000 Jacomo Monte Carlo Open to move into the final round.

In today’s final, Wilander will face either top-seeded Ivan Lendl of Czechoslovakia or defending champion Henrik Sundstrom of Sweden. Play was halted in their rain-delayed match because of darkness. After winning the first set, Sundstrom was tied with Lendl at 6-4, 6-7, 4-4.

At Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., Chris Evert Lloyd and Czechoslovakia’s Hana Mandlikova won their matches in the $275,000 Ford Challenge Cup and will play today for the $100,000 top prize.

Lloyd defeated Carling Bassett of Canada, 6-2, 6-1, and Mandlikova beat Pam Shriver in a pair of tiebreakers, 7-6, 7-6.