Tennis Roundup : A Quick Start by Cash Pays Off in Victory Over Becker

Pat Cash jumped on Boris Becker at the start and held him off at the finish.

Cash, the Wimbledon champion from Australia, scored a 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 victory over Becker, of West Germany, Saturday night in the semifinals of the $345,000 Australian Indoor Tennis Championships at Sydney.

“I knew I had to jump on him before he warmed up,” he said. “After the second set, I had to pull myself together again, get some returns in, and I did that.”

The 22-year-old Cash, seeded third, took 2 hours 41 minutes to down the second-seeded Becker and will face Ivan Lendl of Czechoslovakia in today’s final.

Lendl, the world’s No. 1 player, overpowered fourth-seeded Slobodan Zivojinovic of Yugoslavia, 6-3, 7-5.

Cash has defeated Lendl in their last two meetings--in the semifinals of this year’s Australian Open and in the Wimbledon final.

“He is not my favorite player,” Lendl said.

The top-seeded Lendl took just 1 hour 20 minutes to eliminate Zivojinovic, taking the opening set in 30 minutes while dropping just two points on serve.

Zivojinovic raced to a 3-0 lead in the second set and held two set points in the 10th game when he had Lendl at 15-40. However, the Czech held serve and reeled off two more games to win.

Top-seeded Martina Navratilova ousted Gabriela Sabatini of Argentina, 6-2, 6-2, and Chris Evert eliminated Pam Shriver, 7-5, 6-3, in the semifinals of a $175,000 Virginia Slims tournament at Filderstadt, West Germany.

Evert, seeded No. 2, won the first set when the third-seeded Shriver let a passing shot go by, thinking it was going out. But the ball touched the line, giving Evert the set.

In the second set, Evert was in almost total control.

Navratilova displayed a nearly perfect serve-and-volley game to crush Sabatini’s challenge in 67 minutes.

Israeli champion Amos Mansdorf pulled his second upset in two days, overcoming Brad Gilbert, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, to win a $104,000 tournament at Tel Aviv.

The 22-year-old Mansdorf, seeded third, reached the final by beating top-seeded Jimmy Connors Friday.

Gilbert, seeded second and the defending champion, played a strong first set, breaking Mansdorf twice. But Mansdorf came back in the second set, scoring a crucial break at 5-3 and taking the set with a cross-court winner.

At 4-4 in the final set, Mansdorf broke with a perfectly placed lob over Gilbert’s head. The Israeli closed out the match at 5-4, winning with another cross-court shot out of Gilbert’s reach.

Top-seeded Tim Mayotte beat fourth-seeded Jakob Hlasek of Switzerland, 6-3, 6-1, in the semifinals of a $202,500 tournament at Toulouse, France.

In today’s final, Mayotte will meet unseeded Ricki Osterthun of West Germany, a 5-7, 6-4, 6-2 victor over Tim Wilkison.