Australian Open Tennis : Masur Stuns Becker in Five Sets

Wally Masur, an Australian ranked 71st among the world’s tennis players, upset second-seeded Boris Becker, 4-6, 7-6, 6-4, 6-7, 6-2 in the fourth round of the $1.65-million Australian Open tennis championship at Melbourne Tuesday.

Masur, not even a regular starter on the Australian Davis Cup team, won the last six games to outlast the two-time Wimbledon champion in a three hour, 40 minute struggle and advanced to the quarterfinals.

The 23-year-old unseeded Masur, playing the finest game of his career on the grass courts of Kooyong, defused the 19-year-old West German’s booming serve and kept his cool cool while Becker was losing his.

“I couldn’t serve or return and suddenly I started to lose my cool,” Becker said. “Then I got bad calls. It made me completely crazy.”

Becker angrily slammed his racket on a number of occasions and once hit a hit a ball into the crowd.

“He had me in the bag,” Masur said. “Then he let the crowd rattle him a little and I kept my head.”

Martina Navratilova and Hana Mandlikova, the top two seeds in the women’s division, clinched semifinal berths with easy victories on a day that the last three Americans were eliminated from men’s singles play.

Navratilova, seeking her fourth open title, took just 45 minutes to crush seventh seed Zina Garrison of Houston, 6-0, 6-3.

Eighth-seeded Lori McNeil, also of Houston, failed to win a game and dropped her quarterfinal to Mandlikova, 6-0, 6-0.

Catarina Lindqvist became the first Swedish woman to reach the semifinals of a Grand Slam event when she upset third-seeded American Pat Shriver, 6-3, 6-1. Lindqvist, essentially a baseliner, hit a succession of passing shots to frustrate Shriver, who has never won a Grand Slam singles title but has teamed with Navratilova to capture 14 Grand Slam women’s doubles crowns.

Lindquist will play Navratilova in one semifinal match Thursday, while Mandlikova, the 1980 Australian Open winner, will face fifth-seeded Claudia Kohde-Kilsch of West Germany in the other.

Kohde-Kilsch, reaching the semifinals at Kooyong for the second straight time, struggled past unseeded Elizabeth Smylie of Australia, 7-6, 4-6, 6-2.

The last three American men were eliminated from singles play on Tuesday.

Third-seeded Frenchman Yannick Noah rallied to down 14th seeded Tim Wilkison, 4-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2; Australian Pat Cash, seeded 11th, advanced with a 6-4, 6-1, 6-7, 1-6, 6-2 triumph over Paul Annacone and Kelly Evernden of New Zealand outlasted Derrick Rostagno, 6-7, 6-2, 6-4, 5-7, 7-5.

Noah will play Cash in the quarterfinals while Masur will play Evernden.

Masur, who was unable to gain a regular starting spot in the Australian Davis Cup team last year, kept his poise to outplay Becker in the final set after suffering squandering three match points in the tense fourth set tiebreaker.

When Becker broke to lead 2-0 in the final set, he appeared set for a victory, but Masur played some of his finest tennis as Becker’s resolve crumbled.

Becker was involved in a number of temperamental outbursts during the match and was given warnings by umpire Wayne Spencer for being coached from the sidelines and wasting time.

The defeat was Becker’s second successive disappointment in the Australian Open. He was beaten by Michiel Schapers of the Netherlands in the second round of the previous tournament, which was played in December 1985.

The 21-year-old Cash survived an exhilarating comeback by Annacone, from Bridgehampton, N.Y., and ranked 43rd in the world, before advancing.

Cash led two sets to love, but then struggled until regaining his service power in the final set of the 3-hour match.

Cash’s drive into the quarterfinals continued his recovery from a back injury that threatened his career and an emergency appendectomy he underwent just before Wimbledon. The former Australian Rules football player was ranked 418th in the world going into Wimbledon last year, but is now 24th.

Wilkison, of Asheville, N.C., appeared ready to repeat his U.S. Open victory over Noah, who this year is making his first serious assault on grass court events. But the Frenchman played superbly in the final three sets and made the quarterfinals of a grass court Grand Slam tournament for the first time.

“I was really happy with the way I played. For the first time I felt I could play on grass,” Noah, a slow court specialist, said.

Top-seeded Ivan Lendl of Czechoslovakia was off Tuesday. He faces ninth-seeded Anders Jarryd of Sweden in the quarterfinals today.