Tennis Roundup : Becker Wins 16th in Row and Now Must Face Lendl

Finding his serve wasn’t working, Boris Becker became an effective baseline player at Indianapolis Friday to extend his winning streak to 16 matches.

The 17-year-old West German, seeded No. 3, defeated No. 5 Miloslav Mecir of Czechoslovakia, 6-2, 7-5, to move into the semifinals of the $575,000 U.S. Open Clay Court championships against No. 1-seeded Ivan Lendl of Czechoslovakia.

Lendl, ranked No. 2 in the world, advanced with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over No. 8-seeded Martin Jaite of Argentina.

“I’ve never played him (Lendl),” said Becker, whose last loss was to Mats Wilander in the second round of the French Open. “I’d like to see what I could do against him.”

Becker, explaining why he didn’t rush the net Friday with the abandon that made him the youngest men’s Wimbledon champion in history, said: “Today I played a little too careful because I had respect for his passing shots. The last few weeks, I’ve been playing serve and volley. It was a new game for me today.”

Earlier, No. 2-seeded Zina Garrison and No. 4 Andrea Temesvari of Hungary moved into the women’s singles final for the second time in three years.

Temesvari, who won the title by beating Garrison in 1983, ended the run of unseeded Kate Gompert, 6-3, 6-4, while Garrison avenged a loss to Argentine teen-ager Gabriela Sabatini, 6-4, 6-2.

“I didn’t feel mentally tough today,” said Gompert, a part-time student at Stanford who scored the upset of the tournament Thursday in eliminating top-seeded Manuela Maleeva of Bulgaria. “At times I felt like I was out to lunch.”

Garrison needed slightly more than an hour to beat Sabatini, winning the second set in 28 minutes.

“That was one of my better matches,” she said. “Gabriela puts you on the defense all the time, and I just decided to challenge her. I had no choice because she has such great ground strokes.”

In the other men’s semifinal, defending champion Andres Gomez, the No. 2 seeded player, will meet No. 4 Yannick Noah.

Noah started the day by beating Diego Perez of Uruguay, 6-1, 6-3, in a match that was halted by a thunderstorm Thursday night.

After a break, Noah returned to stadium court and eliminated No. 12 Hans Schwaier of West Germany, 6-3, 6-1.

Gomez capitalized on 27 unforced errors to beat Jaro Navratil of Czechoslovakia, 6-2, 6-3.

Jimmy Connors gained the second round of a $100,000 tournament at Beaver Creek, Colo., defeating Peter Fleming, 6-1, 6-2, while Kevin Curren was upset by Gene Mayer, 7-6, 11-9, 6-3.