McEnroe Rallies to Win, Will Play Lendl in Today’s Men’s Final

Defending champion John McEnroe and frequent runner-up Ivan Lendl won their semifnal matches Saturday and advanced to today’s men’s final in the U.S. Open tennis championships.

McEnroe came from behind to eliminate Sweden’s Mats Wilander, 3-6, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, while Lendl crushed five-time U.S. Open champion Jimmy Connors, 6-2, 6-3, 7-5.

Lendl had very few problems disposing of the 33-year-old Connors, the man who beat him here in the championship match in both 1982 and 1983. Last year, Lendl lost in the final to McEnroe.

Lendl scored the only service breaks in the first two sets, breaking Connors in the sixth game of the first at love and the fourth game of the second set, again at love.

Connors, a favorite of the New York crowds, took a 2-0 lead in the third set when he finally broke Lendl’s service in the second game. But the right-hander from Czechoslovakia broke right back, then took the lead when he broke in the seventh game.

Somewhat hobbled by a slightly sprained ankle suffered during a workout earlier in the day, Connors fought back gamely. He broke Lendl, who was serving for the match in the 10th game, but then dropped his own service again in the 11th game.

That gave Lendl a 6-5 lead, and the Czech closed out the match in the next game by holding serve.

It is the second consecutive year that McEnroe and Lendl have played in the championship match, and the second straight year they were the two top-seeded players.

Shaking off a lethargic start and the oppressive heat, the top-seeded McEnroe had to come from behind to win.

Down 2-1 in sets and a service break in the fourth game, McEnroe raised the level of his game to begin a dramatic comeback before a packed crowd in Louis Armstrong Stadium.

With high humidity and an on-court temperature as high as 114 degrees, the brilliant New Yorker broke Wilander in the fourth game at love to level the set, then again in the sixth, pulling away after a deuce.

“Every changeover I was pouring water on my head, all over my body, just to try to cool it off,” McEnroe said. “At one point in the fourth set, I started to feel a little bit faint. But luckily I started feeling all right.

“It happened to be the time when I broke back in the fourth set.”

When he held his own serve at 15, McEnroe had a 5-2 advantage, one he wouldn’t let slip away. He held service in the ninth game to send the match on the asphalt court at the National Tennis Center into the decisive fifth set.

This is McEnroe’s hometown, and since the tournament moved from cozy Forest Hills to the concrete-and-asphalt complex in Flushing Meadow, only McEnroe and Connors have won the men’s singles.

But Wilander, who rocketed to fame in 1982 when at the age of 17 he became the youngest to capture the French Open men’s singles, wasn’t ready to give up. Normally a baseliner, Wilander repeatedly changed his tactics, finding success both from the backcourt and on his numerous trips to the net.

“This was really an up-and-down type of match,” McEnroe said. “Mats played about as well as I’ve seen him on this type of court. He served and volleyed really effectively, just kept me off guard, made me work hard for everything.

“I was really lucky to come back and win.”

Wilander took a 2-0 lead in the final set, staving off a break point at 30-40 to hold serve in the first game, then breaking McEnroe from deuce in the second.

But McEnroe broke right back to begin a four-game streak that saw him drop only two points as he moved out front 4-2.

He broke Wilander’s service at love in the third game, held at 15 in the fourth, broke at 15 in the fifth, then closed out his streak by serving a love game, punctuating it on the final point with an ace.

Wilander, who was thwarted in his bid for his third singles title in the last four Grand Slam tournaments, came back with a love game, including his fourth and fifth aces of the match. Then he took McEnroe to deuce twice before the New Yorker was able to hold his serve.

But McEnroe closed out the match in the ninth game by winning the first three points, taking a love-40 lead, then breaking Wilander two points later to close out the victory.