Lendl Not About to Let Becker Get the Jump on Him

The headlines in the New York tabloids will read, “Man Beats Boy While Thousands Look On.” There were all the elements: blood, sweat and money. There was drama: wily veteran spanks boy wonder.

There was Ivan Lendl coolly picking Boris Becker apart in the final of the $500,000 Nabisco Masters Sunday in front of 16,227 in Madison Square Garden. Don’t think Becker was standing still for it. Instead, he was leaping and lunging for anything he could get his racket on.

Becker’s unrestrained athleticism is both his blessing and his bane. With slightly less punch and more touch he might have been able to extend Lendl beyond 6-2, 7-6, 6-3. When the 18-year-old begins to play less like a linebacker and more like a delicate surgeon (Lendl) he may last longer--both in the match and in life.

Sunday’s match had Becker whirling and twirling through several leaping dives. One took him into the courtside seats and left him with a gashed knee that required stitches. Lendl, the world’s No. 1 player, meanwhile, ran only when he had to and patiently waited until Becker grew restive hitting from the base line and rushed headlong to the net.

That strategy bore excellent results for Lendl: Becker made 41 unforced errors to Lendl’s 21.

Becker was playing in his first Master’s final and was the youngest player in the tournament. Lendl played in his sixth consecutive final and won his third. Was experience the master over youthful vigor?

“I don’t think he won because he had more experience,” Becker said. “I think I played a very bad first set. At 2-2, I played a bad game and lost my serve.”

Becker lost his serve again in the first set to allow Lendl to go up, 5-2. Lendl served out the set with an ace, one of his nine in the match.

Even though Becker had more aces, 12, his was the more erratic serve. It cost him. Becker’s game is predicated on a powerful serve that jams the receiver into a weak return which Becker can put away at the net.

As Becker has demonstrated time and again this week, when his serve is on, he’s extremely difficult to beat. When he’s serving inconsistently, Becker is dueling with an empty-chambered gun. He’s weaponless.

“Do you think Boris is too dependent on his serve?” Lendl was asked. Lendl nodded his head emphatically, “Definitely, it (his game) comes up and down with his serve, no question about it.”

Consequently, when Becker began hitting his high-velocity serves in the second set, he got up on Lendl. Becker had two aces in the first game and broke in the second.

Becker got the break in characteristic fashion, chasing a wide serve off court, returning it and charging the net. Lendl tried a sharp passing shot that Becker lunged for and got. Becker hit it for a winner, slammed into the floor, popped to his feet and trotted back to serve.

Becker was up 5-2 with set point, but double faulted twice to open the door for Lendl.

Lendl broke in the ninth game but still trailed, 5-4. Both players held until 6-all and the tiebreaker.

It was the tiebreaker that was a microcosm of the match. Becker was the aggressor but he pushed himself into two double faults. Lendl stayed back and made no errors while hitting four service winners.

“There was so much pressure on him,” Lendl said. “I don’t think he handled it as well as he will after a few more times. He was making a lot of errors and wasn’t doing the things he normally does well.”

The key point in the tiebreaker came with Becker serving at 1-2. Lendl sent Becker’s serve back short. Becker was there and shot it back, but Lendl hit a backhand drop shot cross court that sent Becker chasing off court to retrieve. He reached the ball, lunged, returned it and fell. Lendl, somehow, was waiting for the shot and smacked a forehand down the line. Becker, who had just gotten up off the floor, sank to his knees, shaking his head.

Lendl won the tiebreaker, 7-1.

“He just played better,” Becker said of the tiebreaker. “With his passing shots, he just couldn’t miss.”

The third set began with a cacophony of noise from the crowd. Chants of “Boris, Boris” rang as well as shouts of encouragement in both German and Lendl’s Czech. The set also drew first blood.

With Lendl leading 3-0 and serving for game point, Becker did another one of his Esther Williams dives. He chased the ball into the courtside seats and didn’t stop until he had crashed into a flower bed.

Becker emerged moments later, with a gash on his right knee. Lendl came over to hand Becker his racket but Becker headed straight for his chair and took a three-minute injury timeout.

Like a shark when he smells blood (even his own), Becker came back and won three straight games. But that only made up ground he had lost. Lendl broke Becker to go up 5-3 and held his own serve to win the match.

What of the sensational Becker? Losing to Lendl is not much of a setback for the No. 6 player in the world. Even though Becker has made phenomenal improvement since he won Wimbledon last year at 17, he is searching for a more well-rounded game. He has said he would like to get faster and improve his footwork. Becker’s court movement is so sluggish and clambering that his coach, Ion Tiriac, has dubbed him, ‘Mr. Sloppy Legs.’

Lendl says that until players grow less afraid of the powerful and confident Becker, the teen-ager will continue to maul his way through the tour. What Lendl knows, but won’t say publicly, is that Becker must control his enthusiasm on court.

Others agree. Becker need not put an end to his diving and charging around the court--it’s his style. He’s a young man and plays with the vigor of his youth. But he will surely have to temper his on-court gymnastics if he hopes to “stay healthy and live a good life,” which he says are his goals.

Tennis Notes

Ivan Lendl received a check for $100,000 for winning the final. But that was nothing compared to the rest of the booty he took home. He won $800,000 in the Grand Prix bonus pool for accumulating the most tour points, he also won two loving cups designed by Tiffany’s and several watches from various groups given to him as Player of the Year for 1985. . . . The doubles was a Swedish affair, as the team of Stefan Edberg and Anders Jarryd defeated countrymen Mats Wilander and Joakim Nystrom, 6-1, 7-6, Sunday in the final.