Tennis Roundup : Lloyd Wins Title, Defeats Shriver for the 16th Time

Chris Evert Lloyd defeated Pam Shriver, 6-4, 7-5, in the final of a $150,000 Virginia Slims tournament at New Orleans Sunday. It was Lloyd’s 16th straight victory over Shriver dating back seven years.

In the ninth game of the first set, with the score tied, 4-4, Lloyd broke Shriver’s serve with three straight backhand passing shots to go up, 5-4.

In the eighth game of the second set, Lloyd was trailing, 3-4, and again came up with three great shots to hold serve and tie it, 4-4.

With the game at deuce, Lloyd lofted a towering lob over Shriver that caused Shriver to scream, “Oh, please go out!”

It didn’t, and Lloyd took the advantage. She won the game with a little chop shot that caused Shriver to exclaim again, “Oh, no!”

Lloyd broke Shriver’s serve to go up, 6-5, in the second set and held serve for the set and match.

“I hit some good passing shots and served well when I needed to,” Lloyd said. “I was having some trouble with my first serves, but I was getting my second serve deep enough so she couldn’t do much with it.”

At Barcelona, Spain, Thierry Tulasne of France came back from losing the first set, 0-6, to surprise top-seeded Mats Wilander in five sets and win the 33rd Conde de Godo tournament.

Tulasne, nicknamed “the Wild Goat,” hit ferocious and wild shots in the opening minutes, then slowly found his form to record his best-ever Grand Prix victory, 0-6, 6-2, 3-6, 6-4, 6-0.

The match lasted 3 hours 20 minutes.

The event counts toward the $275,000 Nabisco Grand Prix. The 22-year-old Tulasne earned $30,300, Wilander $15,150. Wilander won this tournament the past three years.

At Delray Beach, Fla., a men’s team from Santa Ana was declared co-champion along with a team from Monsey, N.Y, when the final of the USTA-Volvo Tennis League National Championship for players at the 4.0 level was canceled because of rain.

In the men’s semifinals Saturday, Santa Ana downed Honolulu, 3-2, while Monsey topped Jacksonville, Fla., 4-1.

The women’s teams from Pittsburgh and Honolulu also were named co-champions after winning semifinal matches Saturday.