Lendl Defeats Gomez

Ivan Lendl didn’t take his victory in the $575,000 U.S. Open Clay Court Championships too seriously Sunday.

The No. 1-seeded Czechoslovakian defeated defending champion Andres Gomez of Ecuador, 6-1, 6-3, to win the $51,000 prize at Indianapolis. But he said he would not have played if the Men’s International Professional Tennis Council had not forced him to.

He didn’t want to play on clay, he said, because it conflicted with his hardcourt training plans for the U.S. Open.

However, it was the fifth tournament victory of the year for the world’s No. 2-ranked player, who eliminated Wimbledon champion Boris Becker Saturday in the semifinals.

“He (Gomez) didn’t hurt me as badly with his shots from the beginning like Becker did,” Lendl said.

Sunday, Lendl was in command nearly the entire match, especially while he was serving. He lost only 11 points in his eight service games.

Lendl broke the No. 2-seeded Gomez in the third, fifth and seventh games of the first set and again in the sixth game of the second.

“He was rushing too much in the first set,” Lendl said. “I got into the groove. I was cruising along until the second set when he started doing things a little better, a little differently.”

“I was on the run all the time,” said Gomez, who was appearing in the final at the Indianapolis Sports Center for the third consecutive year. “It was difficult to get my first serve in. That made a lot of difference.”

But Gomez, ranked No. 7 in the world, wasn’t disappointed with his performance. “The way I played today I’d beat 1,000 people, maybe not the top three,” he said.

At Beaver Creek, Colo., Jimmy Connors defeated Mats Wilander, 6-4, 6-4, to win the $100,000 Kiva championship for the third straight year on the hardcourts of the Kiva Tennis Club in preparation for the upcoming U.S. Open at Flushing Meadow, N.Y.

For his latest win, the world’s No. 4-ranked world player took home $30,000.

Brad Gilbert won his first singles title of the year by beating Brian Teacher, 4-6, 7-5, 6-0, in the final of a $125,000 tournament at Livingston, N.J.

“I just ran out of gas,” said Teacher. “My legs gave out.”

At Hilversum, Netherlands, the Dutch Open final between Sweden’s Kent Carlsson and West Germany’s Ricky Osterthun was suspended after 2 hours 40 minutes because of bad weather.

Carlsson won the first two sets, 6-4, 6-4. Osterthun won the third, 6-4, and was leading 4-1 in the fourth.

Vince Van Patton and Steve Denton posted a 1-0 men’s doubles overtime victory Sunday to cap a Los Angeles sweep of Boston in Team Tennis action before 892 fans. The Strings won, 28-17.

Steve Denton and Ann White got Los Angeles off to a winning start in mixed doubles, finishing off Boston’s Ann Hendricksson and Drew Gitlin 6-4. In men’s singles, Van Patton stopped Boston’s Mike Leach 6-1.