Tennis Roundup : Connors, Edberg to Play for Title Today

Thirty-four-year-old Jimmy Connors outlasted 23-year-old Mikael Pernfors of Sweden, 6-7, 7-5, 6-3, after 2 hours 27 minutes Saturday to advance to the final of the U.S. Indoor championship at Memphis, Tenn.

Connors, seeded No. 2, will be going for his eighth U.S. Indoor singles title today when he meets No. 1-seeded Stefan Edberg of Sweden, who defeated defending champion Brad Gilbert in a later match, 6-4, 7-6.

Connors holds a 5-1 career advantage over Edberg, winning the last three matches. The winner of the best-of-five final will receive $45,000, and the runner-up $22,500.

“I’m on a roll,” Connors said after his match. “I’m hitting the ball now as well as I’ve ever hit the ball. I’m moving and working and concentrating. I took a layoff, and I’ve come back ready to play.”

Connors grew stronger as the match progressed, moving to a 4-0 lead in the third set. Pernfors, seeded No. 3, managed to break Connors in game 5, but both men held serve from then on with Connors taking the set and match when Pernfors netted a backhand in the ninth game.

Third-seeded Zina Garrison upset top-seeded Hana Mandlikova, 7-5, 4-6, 6-2, to gain the final of a $150,000 Virginia Slims tournament at San Francisco.

Then, in another upset, unseeded Sylvia Hanika of West Germany defeated second-seeded Kathy Rinaldi, 1-6, 6-3, 6-2.

In her match, Garrison came to the net at every opportunity. “I knew I was going to have to go out and keep attacking her serve,” she said. “I wanted to keep at the net as much as possible and just try to keep her off balance. Everything I saw I wanted to hit into the corners.”

Mandlikova’s game was hampered by code violations in the second and third sets that seemed to upset her. One violation was for coaching from the audience, the other for swearing.

“Every time he (umpire Marv Goldman) made a call, it was against me,” Mandlikova said. “I got called for coaching, I got called for two foot faults. I think it was very sad I was picked on.”

Garrison also said the officiating was poor. “You expect line people to make some errors, but it got to the point where the umpire lost control,” she said.