It’s Over Over There for U.S. Men : Lendl Ousts Mayotte; Becker, Leconte, Zivojinovic Advance

It turned out to be true. It is no longer safe for Americans in Europe.

Wimbledon will be without an American in the men’s final for the first time since 1976, and without one in the semifinals for the first time since 1970.

Ivan Lendl of Czechoslovakia, Boris Becker of West Germany, Henri Leconte of France and Slobodan (Bobo) Zivojinovic of Yugoslavia advanced Wednesday, while Tim Mayotte, the last Yankee, went home.

Mayotte lost a sizzler to the top-seeded Lendl, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, 3-6, 9-7, in a match that reminded him very much of his wild five-set match with Becker here a year ago.

“Nightmares in stereo,” Mayotte called them.

Without him, Wimbledon will have four continental Europeans in the men’s semifinals for the first time. Continental, as in not including Englishmen.

The tournament does have a couple of American touches, at least: Lendl lives in Connecticut, and Zivojinovic owns a home in Florida. And Leconte, who was born on the Fourth of July, will be celebrating his birthday Friday while that statuesque mademoiselle from France, Ms. Liberty, is having her second coming-out party in New York.

Leconte eliminated Australia’s Pat Cash, 4-6, 7-6, 7-6, 6-3, in a match between two great showmen. Flamboyant to the point that he was scolded by Cash for talking to himself just as his opponent struck the ball-- “Allez!” (Go!) the Frenchman shouted, psyching himself up--Leconte revealed himself once again as both blithe spirit and ham.

A French reporter told an American reporter: “He is a--how you say?--a lair.”

“A lair?”

“ Oui. What is it you call your Reggie Jock-sone?”

“A hotdog?”

“ Oui. A hotdog.” It turns out that lair is Australian slang for showoff. It is a word that applied to Cash as much as Leconte.

“He yelled out, just as I was hitting the shot a few times during the match,” Cash said. “You just can’t do that. The referee said he didn’t think it interfered with my shot, which was debatable.

“There’s a lot of players who do that sort of crap, which I don’t think is very sportsmanlike. But it pumps them up, so it’s not really up to me to decide what they should do, or shouldn’t do. He (Leconte) thinks it helps him, so I guess it’s up to him.”

Countered Leconte: “It’s important to have a good sense of humor. I don’t think I put Cash off his game. I’m not like Ilie Nastase or (John) McEnroe.”

Small talk aside, it was a fine match, one in which neither player’s service was broken during the middle two sets. Cash had a golden opportunity. He took the first set and led the second, 6-5, with Leconte down love-30. But Leconte served his way out of it.

By winning, Leconte kept alive his chance of becoming the first Wimbledon champion from France since 1946, when Yvon Petra became the last winner to wear long trousers.

Another nice match Wednesday was Zivojinovic’s 6-2, 7-6, 4-6, 6-3 victory over Ramesh Krishnan of India, a man 11 inches shorter and 60 pounds lighter than the 6-6, 200-pound Yugoslav. Zivojinovic faces Lendl next.

Boris Becker, a 6-4, 6-2, 7-6 winner over Miroslav Mecir of Czechoslovakia, is the frequent doubles partner of Zivojinovic, and both are coached by Ion Tiriac, the Transylvanian Sven-ghoulie. This could be a delightful Wimbledon for Tiriac, because there could be a championship match of Bobo vs. Boom Boom.

Lendl, though, looks determined to get to the final for the first time. This is his third semifinal appearance in the last four years, and Mayotte really made him earn it. They went at it furiously for 3 hours 28 minutes, concluding with a fifth set that might still be going on had Mayotte not double-faulted at love-30.

At triple match point, Lendl hit a forehand into the net. But on the next point, Lendl aimed one at Mayotte’s feet, and Mayotte admittedly panicked. He tried a feeble drop shot that failed to clear the net, ending the match.

“I just got stuck on that shot,” Mayotte said. “I panicked and mis-hit the ball.”

But that was about all the 1981 NCAA singles champion from Stanford did wrong. It was a memorable match, one so good that, for a day, the man who was raised in Springfield, Mass., and the Czech who now resides in Greenwich, Conn., together turned these hallowed grounds of tennis into the All New England Club.

Both men served beautifully, particularly Lendl. Mayotte would work like mad to hold service, only to have Lendl make short work of him on his. “He just didn’t open the door at all,” Mayotte said. “I never got any real chances to break.”

Neither man lost his serve in the final set until the 16th game. And all Lendl lost during the set was his composure. When umpire Stephen Winyard gave him a warning for wasting time between serves, Lendl yelled long and loud. He proceeded to double-fault.

Maddeningly deliberate and full of nervous tics, Lendl had been warned before the match that he must put the ball in play within the 30-second time limit. Lendl asked if he would be warned after 15 seconds, since Court No. 1 had no clock. Yes, he was told.

And the warnings came--until that fifth set, Lendl said. “All of a sudden, he just says: ‘Warning!’ It was very unfair. There is no clock; how do I know how long it is? You’ve got enough problems at that point in the match. You’re tired, your eyes are tired, your feet are tired, your hands are tired and you’re nervous.”

For a guy who sounded as though he was falling apart, Lendl after almost 3 1/2 hours still seemed fresh and sharp. He aced Mayotte to take an 8-7 advantage, then won a tremendous point in the final game with a daring topspin shot, a little Lendl looping lob that just barely cleared Mayotte’s boardinghouse reach and just barely fell in bounds.

“It was like a meteor from outer space,” Mayotte said. “It’s hard with a guy with that kind of repertoire.”

Lendl is pulling out all the stops, playing with a sort of obsession. Perhaps even with a bit of paranoia. “Ninety percent of you thought I was going to lose,” Lendl told a roomful of reporters.

Much has been suggested about the top-seeded player’s need to win this big one. Asked what he thought would have been said had he lost, Lendl got defensive. “Since I got here, I have been chopped up for everything,” he said. “I’ve been chopped up for not smiling, for not posing for pictures with my girlfriend, for beating my opponents too easily. I’ve been chopped up on TV for picking up my head on my serve, for not having enough sting in my volleys, for not moving well, for moving crummy. I just look at my (International) Herald-Tribune at the baseball results and the politics, and that’s it.”

Funny, that’s what Americans in Europe do, too.

Wimbledon Notes Tim Mayotte is out, but Stanford is not. Patty Fendick, of Torrance, who played No. 1 singles for Stanford as a freshman, has made the women’s doubles semifinals, partnered with Canadian Jill Hetherington. And so has Elise Burgin, of Baltimore, another Stanford graduate, partnered with Roslyn Fairbank of South Africa. . . . Mayotte, asked if he had realized he was the last remaining American, joked that when he found out, he immediately phoned Ronald Reagan. “He said, ‘Good. Win one for the Gipper.’ But I didn’t vote for him,” Mayotte said. . . . Sarah Ferguson, Prince Andrew’s fiancee, was in attendance. . . . Henri Leconte scooped up a butterfly with his racket during his match and carried it to the sideline. What a lair.