Tennis Roundup : Wilander Gains Final Against Connors With Win Over Lendl

Mats Wilander of Sweden defeated Ivan Lendl of Czechoslovakia in the first day of the $250,000 Suntory Cup tennis tournament Saturday at Tokyo to move into the final against Jimmy Connors, a three-time winner of this four-man event.

Wilander, ranked No. 3 in the world, took advantage of Lendl’s erratic serving to beat the world’s No. 1-ranked player, 6-4, 6-4. Connors, ranked No. 5, salvaged a 7-5, 5-7, 6-3 victory over Stefan Edberg after battling the No. 6-ranked Swede for 2 hours 20 minutes.

The tournament winner will receive $110,000. The runner-up will collect $70,000, with $40,000 going to the third-place finisher and $30,000 to the loser of today’s consolation match.

Lendl, who has won the tournament the past two years, said the Yoyogi National Stadium’s court was “too fast” for him. “I couldn’t adjust to the court,” he said.

Edberg also noted that the fast court made play difficult. Connors, he said, “returned very well . . . and he doesn’t give you a lot of time to hit the ball.”

At Amelia Island, Fla., West Germans Steffi Graf and Claudia Kohde-Kilsch advanced to the final of the $275,000 Sunkist-WTA championships.

No. 1-seeded Graf defeated Kathy Rinaldi, 6-1, 5-7, 6-3, and No. 2-seeded Kohde-Kilsch beat Gabriela Sabatini of Argentina, 6-1, 6-0.

Graf, 16, will be looking for her second consecutive title. She won last week’s Family Circle Magazine Cup at Hilton Head Island, S.C., by defeating Chris Evert Lloyd for the first time in her career.

Kohde-Kilsch enters today’s final with just one game lost in her last two matches. She defeated Sabatini in 61 minutes after disposing of Angeliki Kanellopoulou of Greece, 6-0, 6-0, in 51 minutes Friday.