Tennis Roundup : Edberg Beats Pate in Tokyo; Graf Wins

Second-seeded Stefan Edberg of Sweden beat 15th-seeded David Pate, 7-6, 6-4, at Tokyo Sunday to win the men’s singles title in the $605,000 Japan Open championship.

Edberg, the world’s third-ranked player, received $68,000 for his fourth victory of the season. He also won the Australian and the Dutch opens and the U.S. Indoor.

Pate, who is ranked 42nd in the world, won $34,000.

On his way to the final, Pate upset Ivan Lendl, the world’s top-ranked player, 7-6, 4-6, 7-6, in the third round Thursday.

Edberg and Pate both served and volleyed well, and the first set went into a tiebreaker when Pate won his serve in the 12th game without losing a point.

Pate served four aces in the first set but, trailing 1-2 in the tiebreaker, he double-faulted and never recovered, dropping the tiebreaker, 7-2.

In the third game of the second set, Edberg broke serve as Pate double-faulted twice in a game that went to deuce four times.

In the ninth game, Edberg had a match point at 0-40, but Pate bounced back. He served his eighth ace of the day and won the game on a shot by Edberg that went long.

Edberg went ahead, 40-0, in the next game, lost one point and then took the match when Pate’s volley went long.

Steffi Graf extended her winning streak to 22 matches with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Czechoslovakia’s Hana Mandlikova to retain her title in the $300,000 WITA Championships at Amelia Island, Fla.

The 17-year-old West German, who is ranked second in the world, has now won 44 of 46 sets this year while winning four tournament titles.

It was her second victory in three career meetings with Mandlikova, the Australian Open champion who is ranked third in the world.

Graf, who won $40,000, opened the match by winning 16 of the first 20 points to take a 4-0 lead. Mandlikova fought back to 3-4, breaking Graf twice. But she double-faulted twice to lose her serve in the eighth game and fell behind 3-5.

Mandlikova, who double-faulted seven times, was hurt by poor service during the 73-minute match.

“It’s difficult to play Steffi because she starts so fast, but I think my serve was the main reason why I lost,” Mandlikova said. “I didn’t serve well. I double-faulted in the important moments.”

Sweden’s Kent Carlsson won the $17,880 first prize by beating Spain’s Emilio Sanchez, 7-6, 6-3, in the final of a $104,900 Grand Prix tournament at Nice, France.

It was the third tournament victory for the 19-year-old Carlsson, who evened his career record against Sanchez at 2-2.