Tennis Roundup : McEnroe Can’t Get By Another Swede in Final

John McEnroe blamed impatience, not his ailing hip.

Whatever the reason, Mats Wilander of Sweden beat McEnroe, 6-3, 6-4, Sunday in the final of the $315,000 Belgian Indoor tennis championships at Brussels.

It was the second straight week that McEnroe had lost in the final to a Swede. Last week, it was Stefan Edberg in the Dutch Open at Rotterdam.

“Mats . . . mixed his play well,” McEnroe said. “He got me more impatient than I liked. I’m not as patient anymore.”

The Swede relied on his sound backcourt game and brilliant passing shots in key situations to win in 1 hour 28 minutes.

But Wilander also seemed to cross up McEnroe several times when he came to the net.

“I felt I hit the right shots at the right moment,” Wilander said.

McEnroe had to wait until Wilander’s seventh service game to get his first service break and take a 3-1 lead in the second set.

But Wilander broke right back and regained control of the set and the match by breaking McEnroe in the ninth game.

It was Wilander’s first tournament victory since he won in Cincinnati last September.

McEnroe said he will take a one-week break to treat the tendinitis in his hip and will be back for next month’s WCT finals in Dallas.

“It would have been nicer to rest on a winning note,” McEnroe said.

Australian Pat Cash, returning to form, battered Wally Masur, also of Australia, 6-2, 6-3, to win a $104,900 Grand Prix tournament at Nancy, France.

It was Cash’s first victory in a tournament since 1983 at Brisbane, Australia, other than leading Australia to the Davis Cup last December.

The 21-year-old has been making a comeback after back problems and an appendectomy over the past two years. From a high of No. 7, his ranking dropped to No. 413 at one point. He is back up to No. 12.

“I’m playing well. Sometimes you can play well and not win,” Cash said.

Hana Mandlikova used a near-flawless serve to defeat Barbara Potter, 6-4, 6-2, and win the $150,000 Virginia Slims of Washington tournament at Fairfax, Va.

Mandlikova, ranked No. 4 in the world, needed only 75 minutes to beat Potter and conclude a week in which she did not lose a set in five matches.

Mandlikova lost her serve only once, with a 5-0 lead in the second set, in improving her record against Potter to 7-0.

After both players held serve through the opening six games of the match, Mandlikova gained control of the set with a pivotal break in the seventh game.

The second set was all Mandlikova.