Tennis Roundup : Becker Chokes Off McEnroe’s Bid to Win Title

West Germany’s Boris Becker, the No. 2 player in the world, stalled John McEnroe’s comeback bid, 3-6, 6-3, 7-5, Sunday to win the $500,000 AT&T; Challenge tournament at Atlanta.

The 19-year-old Becker, who earned $150,000, took command in the final set by breaking McEnroe’s serve in the first game. McEnroe fought back to break Becker in the sixth game and tie it, 3-3, but a lapse in concentration may have cost him the match.

Serving at 15-40, McEnroe double-faulted to fall behind, 6-5. Becker, who had 14 aces in the match and 9 in the final set, held serve to close out the match.

McEnroe said two missed calls by an official cost him the match in the third set. Trailing 4-3, Becker opened the eighth game with two straight aces, both of which McEnroe argued were faults.

“I really had the momentum at 4-3,” McEnroe said. “It’s unforgivable that a guy should miss two straight calls. I was ready to win that match and those people changed the whole momentum of that match.”

Becker disagreed that the calls allowed him to come back and win.

“In such a match, you get bad calls in the first and second sets, too,” he said. “I’m sure he got as many bad calls as I got.”

“(McEnroe) was playing like a machine for a set and a half,” Becker said. “You have to cool off. He’s not a machine, he’s a human being.”

The 27-year-old McEnroe, who took a self-imposed seven-month hiatus from tennis in January, was rarely in trouble in the first set, serving 7 aces and 5 service winners on the fast Supreme Court surface at the Omni.

Becker, who has won six Grand Prix events this year to gain his No. 2 ranking behind Czechoslovakia’s Ivan Lendl, managed to keep pace with McEnroe in the opening set until the sixth game, when he lost his serve to fall behind, 4-2.

Becker, who has won Wimbledon the last two years, took charge in the second set, breaking McEnroe in the eighth game for a 5-3 lead, and never let up.

McEnroe, who defeated Lendl, 6-4, 7-5, in Saturday’s semifinal, lost to Becker, 6-3, 5-7, 7-5, in the first round of the week-long, round-robin tournament on Tuesday.

Since returning to the tour in August, McEnroe has won three events. He earned $100,000 for his runner-up finish.

Becker, who beat fifth-ranked Yannick Noah of France, 6-4, 6-3, in the semifinals, has beaten McEnroe 3 times in 4 meetings.

Martina Navratilova defeated hometown favorite Pam Shriver, 6-4, 6-3, in the final of the $100,000 Cystic Fibrosis Festival at Baltimore.

Navratilova, the world’s No. 1 women’s player, won $12,500. Shriver, the world’s No. 6 player from nearby Lutherville, Md., lost to her doubles partner for the 30th time in 33 career meetings.

Before a sellout crowd of 2,850 at Loyola College’s Reitz Arena, Marty Riessen defeated Tom Gorman, 7-6, 6-3, to win $10,000 in a men’s 35-and-over final.