McEnroe Is Again Forced to Three Sets, Faces Lendl

For the second day in a row, John McEnroe was forced to three sets Saturday at Forest Hills, N.Y.

This time, he pulled out a 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 victory over Sweden’s Henrik Sundstrom to move into today’s final round of the Tournament of Champions, where he will meet Ivan Lendl.

Lendl, who is seeded No. 2 behind McEnroe, also had to go three sets to beat No. 3-seeded Aaron Krickstein, 6-1, 2-6, 6-1.

This is the second consecutive year that the world’s top ranking players will play in the final of this $615,000 tournament. McEnroe won last year’s match, 6-4, 6-2. Overall, he is 12-9 against Lendl, winning 10 of their last 12 matches.

“Tomorrow should be a close match,” McEnroe said. “I haven’t seen him play all that much (this year), but we’re both playing well.”

McEnroe has a match record of 34-1 this year, while Lendl has won his last three tournaments.

McEnroe had grudgingly provided some real excitement Friday when he struggled for 2 hours 43 minutes before beating unseeded Claudio Panatta of Italy, 3-6, 6-2, 7-6.

Against Sundstrom, McEnroe had three aces and five double-faults, while the 21-year-old Swede had eight aces and two double-faults.

Lendl said the difference in the three sets he played came because of Krickstein’s powerful ground strokes and the Czech’s mistake in strategy.

“I thought I played well in the first set,” Lendl said. “In the first game of the second set, he started to hit harder, and I made a mistake in strategy. I tried to hit hard with him.

“In the third set, I started lobbing, taking the pace off the ball and making him hit his backhand high.”

It worked to perfection as Lendl reeled off the final five games of the match.

Continuing her comeback, Dianne Balestrat of Australia upset fifth-seeded Gigi Fernandez of Puerto Rico, 6-1, 6-3, to move into the final of the $200,000 Australian Women’s Indoor championships at Sydney.

Balestrat, who upset second-seeded Kathy Jordan in Friday’s quarterfinals, will face top-seeded Pam Shriver, who beat fourth-seeded Alycia Moulton, 6-3, 6-2, in the other semifinal Saturday.

Balestrat, who as Dianne Fromholtz was ranked fourth in the world in 1979, made her return to the tour in October after a layoff of 18 months.

Sweden’s Joakim Nystrom and West Germany’s Hansjoerg Schwaier reached the final of a $100,000 tournament at Munich, West Germany. Nystrom beat Jose-Luis Clerc of Argentina, 6-2, 6-4, and Schwaier defeated Diego Perez of Uruguay, 6-4, 6-4.