Tennis Roundup : Lendl Wins After Battling Perez-Roldan and Crowd

Ivan Lendl had to struggle for 4 hours 37 minutes Sunday before beating Guillermo Perez-Roldan, 2-6, 6-4, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4, for the Italian Open singles title.

It was Lendl’s 11th straight victory since coming back last month after a two-month layoff with a foot injury. But he was stretched to the limit by the 18-year-old Argentine, who last Sunday won a Nabisco Grand Prix event on clay in Munich, West Germany.

Along with a tough foe, Lendl battled a rowdy crowd of 8,000 at Rome’s Foro Italico and frequently got into shouting matches with spectators, who often cheered his errors and jeered his outbursts.

In the second set, as the noise level increased, Lendl lost his patience. After someone shouted, “Go Dracula,” Lendl yelled, “Shut up.”

Soccer noise also became a factor as fans watching Roma play Verona in the final match of the Italian league season at nearby Olympic stadium let loose with distracting cheers.

“Given the conditions, I think the quality of the tennis was quite good,” Lendl said. “Obviously, I would have liked to have played better. But it’s not as important how you start the match as how you finish it.”

Perez-Roldan, ranked 26th in the world, said he never doubted that he had a chance to beat Lendl.

“I always have a lot of confidence and it went up as the match wore on, but it wasn’t meant to be,” he said.

Lendl received $95,200. Perez-Roldan got $47,600.

Steffi Graf of West Germany defeated Helena Sukova of Czechoslovakia, 6-3, 6-2, to win the West German championships for the third straight year.

Graf, ranked No. 1 in the world, took only 54 minutes to beat No. 7 Sukova before a sellout crowd of 4,500 at West Berlin’s Hundekehlsee club.

“I played my very best,” Graf said.