Noah Starts Off on the Wrong Foot : After Misunderstanding, He’s Routed in Final by Nystrom

Yannick Noah arrived at the final of the Pilot Pen tennis tournament Sunday expecting to play a best-of-three-set match. Surprise--it was scheduled as a best-of-five. He arrived expecting to play Joakim Nystrom, a 23-year-old Swede. Surprise--it was an uncanny incarnation of Bjorn Borg.

Another surprise was Nystrom’s precise picking apart of Noah in 1 hour 41 minutes by the score of 6-1, 6-3, 6-2.

It would have been folly to predict such an overwhelming win for Nystrom, a steady baseliner, over the leaping, attacking Frenchman. But Nystrom slugged it out from the baseline, he passed Noah with alarming frequency, and played a Borg-like flawless match in front of a sellout crowd of 9,000.

Noah could do without any more shocks for a while.

“I didn’t know. They told me when I got on the court,” Noah said of his misunderstanding about the number of sets in the final. “It just happened. I did not know, the people around me did not know. Nobody told me.”

It was reported that Noah, who is among the most agreeable players on the tour, was visibly upset before the match. He did not appear angry in a press conference, and he did not blame anyone.

“He was very upset (before the match),” Nystrom said. “I think he was upset at the beginning (of the match). You could see it in him that he was very upset.

“It’s tough if you prepare for three sets and then they tell you it’s five.”

Tournament referee Don Wiley was at a loss to understand how Noah could not have known.

“Players don’t keep themselves informed, what can I say,” Wiley said. “The information is printed in ITW (International Tennis Week), the official publication of the tour. It’s in the calender, it’s in the official tournament information sent to the players.”

Nystrom said he, too, had thought the final was a best-of-three.

“I was in the tournament office last night and I happened to find out,” Nystrom said. “There was something up in the locker room. Something about the doubles going to five sets. It was confusing.”

Nystrom was referring to a one-year-old ruling that states if the singles final lasts less than one hour (as in the case of a default due to injury), the tournament has the option of changing the doubles final to a best-of-five sets. This, on the theory that a shortened singles final cheats the ticket-buying public.

Last year’s final was also a best of five.

In the final analysis, it is the responsibility of the player to get himself to the match on time and ascertain the playing format.

“We have a player’s handbook,” Tournament Director Charlie Pasarell said. “The information is on all the player entry forms. Maybe he just didn’t read it. Maybe he overlooked it. I can understand if he was angry, it’s a long day. But it’s not new, it was best-of-five last year.”

If Noah were upset, it showed in the first set as Nystrom broke his serve twice. Clearly, Noah was not having a good day. Nystrom, however, should get credit for his devastating control of the match.

“It is the best I’ve played, ever, I think,” Nystrom said. He did not lose a set in the tournament and beat Boris Becker and Jimmy Connors to get to the final.

“I felt I could do anything with the ball, especially with my passing shots.”

With his biggest weapon defused, Noah grew increasingly frustrated.

“I came in on hard shots--he passed me,” Noah said. “I tried to hit deep angles--he passed me. I tried to kick my serve--he passed me. I tried everything. I did the best I could, even though it wasn’t much. His passing shots, I think that was it.”

Noah was so overwhelmed in the first two sets that it seemed he needed the third to recover. “During the first two sets I was non-existing,” he said.

Noah had a break point in the first game of the third set, but Nystrom’s service ace saved the game.

Nystrom broke in the second game, and it was then that Noah appeared to lose his grip. Literally. After a long rally on break point, Noah yanked on his racquet with such force that he pulled the leather grip off.

His game continued to unravel from there.

Still, Noah was smiling later.

“I am not depressed about it,” he said. “I know I can play better than I did today. He played great tennis. I have much to work on.”

Tournament Notes Yannick Noah lost again in doubles. He and partner Sherwood Stewart were beaten in the final by Guy Forget and Peter Fleming, 6-4, 6-3. . . . Joakim Nystrom won $55,250 in singles, and Noah $27,625. Nystrom also won the tournament’s sportsmanship award.