Tennis Roundup : McEnroe Pleased With Progress, Despite Loss

John McEnroe’s warm-up for Wimbledon ended Friday when he was upset, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2, by Christo van Rensburg of South Africa in the semifinals of the Wirral International grass-court tournament at West Kirby, England.

Van Rensburg, ranked 36th in the world, will meet David Pate of Las Vegas for the title today.

Pate beat another American, Leif Shiras, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, in the the other semifinal. After the second set of this match, umpire Trevor Mathew-Jones was replaced following complaints from both players about bad calls.

McEnroe, playing on British grass courts for the first time since losing in the Wimbledon quarterfinals three years ago, said he was pleased with his progress and vowed to do better once the Grand Slam tournament starts Monday.

After the match, McEnroe pledged that Wimbledon--where he is seeded eighth--would be different and said he was happy with his preparation.

“I thought things were coming around,” the three-time Wimbledon champion said. “I’ll just have to take the next couple of days and work on my serve and iron out the kinks.”

Van Rensburg opens at Wimbledon against Britain’s top player, Jeremy Bates. McEnroe goes against Austria’s Horst Skoff.

After Friday’s 1-hour 40-minute match, McEnroe said it was his serve that let him down.

“Things started off great. I felt good in practice this morning and started the match really well,” McEnroe said. “But I just got out of sync. I got a couple of bum steers on calls that hurt me at important times, and I wasn’t winning enough points on first serves.”

McEnroe never complained about line calls during the match, appearing to hold his temper a few times when calls went against him. He said the court was too soft but added that was not the reason he lost.

“His confidence grew as the game went on,” McEnroe said of Van Rensburg. “It’s disappointing. But these were difficult conditions today. I would have liked to have done better, but under the circumstances I have had a good week’s practice.”

The revenge match Martina Navratilova wanted most in her buildup to Wimbledon was assured when she and Natalia Zvereva reached the final of the $250,000 Pilkington Glass tournament at Eastbourne, England.

Navratilova beat 16-year-old Mary Joe Fernandez, 6-2, 6-3, in one semifinal, while in the other, Zvereva, the exciting teen-ager from the Soviet Union, downed Pascale Paradis of France, 6-1, 2-6, 6-2.

Two weeks ago, Zvereva handed Navratilova her most humiliating defeat of the year when she beat her, 6-3, 7-6, on clay in the fourth round of the French Open.

Navratilova has been seeking revenge ever since. Now, she has her chance, and on her favorite grass surface.

“She’s on my territory now,” Navratilova said. “I’m not under-estimating her, I would never do that. But when you lose to someone like that, you like to avenge yourself. The sooner the better. She won’t have the chances to set shots up the way she did on clay.”

Ramesh Krishnan of India defeated Mark Dickson of Tampa, Fla., 6-1, 6-4, to advance to the final of the Bristol Trophy men’s grass-court tournament at Bristol, England.

Krishnan, 27, will play Christian Saceanu of West Germany in today’s final. Krishnan’s father, Ramathan, won this event, then known as the West of England Championships, in 1959.

The 19-year-old Saceanu advanced by saving three match points on his way to a 6-7, 7-6, 6-4 victory over Derrick Rostagno, 6-7, 7-6, 6-4. Rostagno had been off the circuit for two months because of pneumonia.