Mecir in Final After Upsetting Wilander Again

Miloslav Mecir of Czechoslovakia upset top-seeded Mats Wilander of Sweden, 6-2, 6-4, Saturday to advance to the final of the $435,000 Italian Open tennis championships.

It was the second time in 14 days that Mecir had routed Wilander. The last time they met, in the semifinals at Hamburg, West Germany, the score was 6-1, 6-2.

Saturday, at Rome’s Foro Italico, Mecir broke Wilander’s serve seven times in succession and needed only 34 minutes to win the first set, making only one unforced error in the process.

Except for a brief period after saving a match point when trailing 5-1 in the second set, Wilander seemed helpless.

“I tried to play the same match as I did in Hamburg, particularly using a slow service,” Mecir said. Asked whether he would do anything to improve his service, he said, jokingly: “Maybe I’ll slow it down.”

Today, on his 21st birthday, he meets Yannick Noah of France for the $56,000 first prize. Noah celebrated his 25th birthday Saturday with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over 17-year-old Boris Becker of West Germany.

Steffi Graf, West Germany’s 15-year-old tennis prodigy, faces top-seeded Chris Evert Lloyd today in the final of the $150,000 West German Open at West Berlin.

Lloyd eliminated 18-year-old Kathy Rinaldi, 6-1, 6-3, in a mismatch that took only 71 minutes, while Graf, in an equally awesome performance, defeated Bettina Bunge, 6-2, 6-3, in 68 minutes.

Bunge, who ousted defending champion Claudia Kohde-Kilsch in the quarterfinals, trailed Graf, 0-4, before she won a point. Graf has demolished all tournament foes in record time so far. She routed Kathy Horvath, 6-1, 6- 3, in a 55-minute quarterfinal Friday.

Top-seeded Pam Shriver and second-seeded Kathy Jordan won their semifinal matches in a $75,000 women’s indoor tournament at Melbourne, Australia.

Shriver defeated British teen-ager Annabel Croft, 7-6, 6-2, and Jordan eliminated Barbara Potter, 7-5, 6-3.

At Athens, Ga., Jeff Klaparda led top-ranked UCLA to a 5-2 victory over Miami of Florida in the first round of the NCAA men’s team championships.

Klaparda rallied to beat Pieter Aldrich, 4-6, 7-5, 6-4, at No. 2 singles. Miami won at No. 1 singles, with Andrew Burrow beating Michael Kures, 6-2, 7-6, and at No. 1 doubles, with Burrow and Chris Louw beating Brad Pearce and Ken Diller, 4-6, 7-5, 6-4.

USC and Miami advanced to the final of the NCAA women’s championships at Oklahoma City.

USC routed California, 9-0, while Miami beat Trinity, 5-4. The Trojans have not lost a singles match through three rounds of the tournament.