Mecir Upsets Wilander, Gains West German Final

Miloslav Mecir of Czechoslovakia upset top-seeded Mats Wilander of Sweden, 6-1, 6-2, Saturday to reach the final of the $315,000 West German Open tennis tournament at Hamburg, West Germany.

Mecir will play Henrik Sundstrom of Sweden in today’s final. Sundstrom defeated Jose-Luis Clerc of Argentina, 6-3, 6-4, in the other semifinal.

“I didn’t really expect to win,” Mecir said. “I lost to Wilander twice as a junior.” Mecir, ranked 27th in the world, broke Wilander’s serve in the first game, then held his serve to take a 2-0 lead.

Wilander, ranked fourth in the world, held serve in the third game but Mecir won the next nine games. The Czechoslovakian took the first set in 27 minutes, then bolted to a 5-0 lead in the second set.

Wilander held serve in the sixth game of the second set, then broke Mecir for the first time in the seventh, but the Czech came right back to take a 40-15 lead. Wilander netted a backhand to end the 53-minute rout.

Elise Burgin continued her impressive string of upsets by defeating second-seeded Manuela Maleeva, 6-4, 7-6, to advance to the final of the $150,000 Virginia Slims of Houston tournament.

Burgin will face top-seeded Martina Navratilova in today’s final. Navratilova rolled past Helena Sukova of Czechoslovakia, 6-3, 6-0, in the other semifinal match.

Maleeva fought off two match points in the eighth game but held serve to trail, 5-3. She got back into the match by breaking Burgin’s service and held serve again for 5-5. When the set went to the tie-breaker in 80-degree heat, Burgin became more aggressive and pulled out an 8-6 victory.

“A third set would be really tough in this heat,” she said. “I thought I had to go for it. I definitely became more agressive in the tie-breaker.”