Tennis Roundup : Noah Beats Vilas on Home Court

Yannick Noah has again drawn attention to himself.

After winning the French Open in 1983, the 25-year-old Frenchman was driven from his homeland because he couldn’t handle all the fuss made over him.

Now a resident of New York, Noah refocused the spotlight on himself Sunday by winning the $615,000 Shearson Lehman Tournament of Champions in his new hometown.

“It’s a big difference when all I have to worry about is my game,” Noah said after defeating Argentina’s Guillermo Vilas, 7-6, 6-0, at Forest Hills to win the $80,000 first prize.

Although he will be a little better recognized, Noah said: “All wins are big, but this one is very special to me because it’s the first one in my new hometown.”

However, he is thinking of returning shortly to Paris. The victory, on the clay courts of the West Side Tennis Club, stamps Noah as one of the favorites for the French Open, starting May 26.

“Coming up to the French, everybody feels he is going to win this one, and wants to win this one,” Noah said. “But I know that I can do it, because I did it yesterday (beat world No. 1 Ivan Lendl) and two weeks ago (when he defeated No. 2 Mats Wilander).”

Sunday, after winning a first set that lasted 1 hour 5 minutes, Noah raced through the second set in 28 minutes.

“Guillermo was playing really well at the beginning of the match,” Noah said of his 33-year-old rival.

“I was a little bit tense and nervous at the beginning. . . . I got more relaxed in the second set, started to serve better and put more pressure on him. I got used to his strategy and played better, and he seemed to be kind of tired at the end.”

Vilas, the big surprise of this championship, had reason to be pleased despite the loss. This was only his third tournament following a seven-month layoff, and this was his first final since 1983. Yet, he collected $40,000 to lift his lifetime earnings to $4,665,772.

The Argentine left-hander was only the second unseeded player ever to reach the final of the Tournament of Champions. The first was Brazilian Carlos Kirmayr, who lost to Eddie Dibbs in 1981.

If Vilas had won, he would have tied Bjorn Borg for third place on the all-time list with 62 career victories.

Top-seeded Chris Evert Lloyd lost her first set ever to second-seeded Kathy Rinaldi but still managed a 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 victory to win the $150,000 Virginia Slims of Houston.

Rinaldi, who had lost 12 consecutive career sets against Lloyd, took advantage of Lloyd’s erratic serve in the second set with breaks in the third, fifth and seventh games.

With the victory, Lloyd picked up $30,000. Rinaldi, who earned $13,600 as runner-up, has lost seven straight matches to Lloyd, including three this year.

At Osaka, Japan, Stefan Edberg beat fellow Swede Bjorn Borg, 6-3, 6-4, to win the men’s singles title in the $200,000 Gunze World Tournament, while Martina Navratilova defeated Bonnie Gadusek, 6-4, 6-0, in the women’s final .

The victories were worth $30,000 each to Edberg and Navratilova.