Lendl Ends Becker’s Win Streak

No. 1-seeded Ivan Lendl of Czechoslovakia defeated Wimbledon champion Boris Becker, 5-7, 6-2, 6-2, at Indianapolis Saturday to advance to the final of the $575,000 U.S. Open Clay Court Tennis Championships against defending champion Andres Gomez.

The loss ended a 16-game winning streak for the 17-year-old Becker, whose last defeat had been to Mats Wilander in the second round of the French Open.

The West German, seeded No. 3, broke Lendl to take a 4-3 lead in the first set in his first meeting with the world’s No. 2-ranked player.

Lendl bounced back, but Becker gained the edge again in the 11th game and held in the 12th to close out the set.

“The first set I played good tennis,” Becker said. “I played a little worse in the second and third, but he played at the same level.”

Becker’s powerful serve seemed to lose some zing in the second set, while Lendl kept hitting with more authority on every point.

Lendl scored a break to go up, 3-1, and won the set by breaking Becker without losing a point in the final game.

Lendl, who hit 29 winners, scored the first break of the final set in the sixth game, held serve and then broke Becker again at deuce to end the match after 2 hours 8 minutes.

“I’m still a human being and I have to lose somedays,” Becker said. “Lendl plays at a different level than anyone I’ve played. He made maybe five mistakes.”

In the end, it was the experience of Lendl that made the difference.

“He surprised me some,” Lendl said. “I didn’t know what to do at first. I thought I could stay in and handle his serve, but that didn’t work.”

Lendl decided to move farther back behind the base line, standing some 20 feet away to take the serve.

“I discovered that was the way to handle the serve,” Lendl said. “I wanted to try to break his pace and go all the way back, and he didn’t know what to do.

“I don’t think I could get away with that with (Jimmy) Connors and (John) McEnroe without them finding some way to move me out of position,” Lendl said.

Earlier, Ecuador’s Gomez reached the Clay Court final for the third consecutive year. The No. 2-seeded Gomez routed No. 4 Yannick Noah of France in only 51 minutes, 6-0, 6-1.

“I think this is why tennis drives someone crazy,” said Gomez, who is 1-8 lifetime against Lendl. “Last week I couldn’t hit three balls in a row on the court and today I probably played the best match of my life.”

“I think he played a real great match,” Noah said. “He didn’t give my many chances. I didn’t play well, but he didn’t miss any.”

Noah, who has his greatest success when he’s on offense, found his weapon missing against Gomez.

“When I came in he was passing me like I was the ball boy,” Noah said.

And when Noah was down 5-0, he handed his racket to a ball boy and sent him on the court to receive a Gomez serve, for some comic relief during a timeout. The ball boy was unsuccessful.

“I thought that was my last chance,” Noah said. “It’s not that I played terrible or I played bad. It’s just that he played well.

“I thought I could play serve-and-volley, but he made some good returns.”

Meanwhile, No. 4 Andrea Temesvari defeated No. 2 Zina Garrison in the women’s singles final for the second time in three years.

This time, the 19-year-old Hungarian won, 7-6, 6-3, reeling off 18 straight points in one stretch.

Garrison had a 6-5 lead and, at 30-30, was two from winning the first set when she fell apart. She lost the next two points as Temesvari evened the match. Temesvari then won the tiebreaker, 7-0, and followed that by winning the first nine points of the second set, eventually moving to a 4-0 lead.

At Beaver Creek, Colo., Mats Wilander meets Jimmy Connors for the title in a $100,000 tournament.

In the semifinals, Wilander beat Gene Mayer, 7-6, 6-3, while Connors defeated Scott Davis, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.

Brian Teacher upset defending champion Johan Kriek 7-6, 6-4, to advance to the final of the $125,000 Volvo Championships at Livingston, N.J.

In today’s final, Teacher will meet Brad Gilbert, who downed Jim Grabb, 6-3, 6-2, in the other semifinal. Gilbert defeated Paul Annacone, 6-3, 6-2, earlier in the day to reach the semifinals.

Meanwhile, Rosalyn Fairbank of South Africa defeated top-seeded Andrea Jaeger, 6-1, 6-1, to win the $12,000 State of New Jersey Ladies Cup at the Newark Academy. Jaeger, who has been recovering from a rotator cuff injury, moved into the final with a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Grace Kim earlier in the day.