Becker Stuns Wilander in Junior Masters Final
Teen-age Wimbledon champion Boris Becker of West Germany upset Mats Wilander of Sweden, 6-1, 7-6, 6-0, Sunday to win the $150,000 Junior Masters tennis tournament.
Becker, ranked No. 6 in the world, overwhelmed the No. 3-ranked Wilander in 1 hour 50 minutes before 5,500 to win the $30,000 prize. Wilander pocketed $20,000.
“In the first and third sets, I never saw him play better,” said Wilander, the French Open champion. “Not against me, anyway. It’s not easy to have a tactic when he hits aces all the time.”
The 18-year-old Becker committed few mistakes against the 21-year-old Swede. Complimented on his apparent domination, Becker said: “I don’t know if that was so clear. The first set I played perfectly. The second set was the decisive one.
“What I accomplished today against Wilander is naturally little in comparison to what I’ll have to do the middle of this month in the Nabisco Masters in New York, possibly against John McEnroe and Ivan Lendl. But I think this competition was good training for New York.”
Becker got to Sunday’s final by beating Spain’s Emilio Sanchez, ranked 64th in the world, 6-4, 6-4, in one of two Saturday semifinals. In the other, Wilander, the tournament’s No. 1 seeded player, defeated Jakob Hlasek of Switzerland, 6-3, 7-6.
The tournament at West Berlin’s Congress Center was open to professionals under 22 years of age.
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