Masters Tennis Tournament : Becker Defeats Wilander in 3 Sets

His ankle felt fine and his feet didn’t hurt. All that bothered Boris Becker Wednesday night were a couple of Mats Wilander shots that hit the net cord and bounced over, just out of reach.

So Boris boiled. He yelled. He threw his racket. He lost the second-set tiebreaker.

But Becker won the match. Becker, the world’s No. 4 player, upset No. 1-ranked Wilander, 7-6, 6-7, 6-1, in their first round-robin match at the Nabisco Masters in Madison Square Garden.

Becker, who recently turned 21, kept his streak alive of never having lost on carpet to Wilander. Becker has beaten Wilander 5 times in 7 matches overall.

The last time they played, though, Wilander won in straight sets on clay at the 1987 French Open. Becker, it seems, remembered.

“I wanted to give it back to him a little bit,” Becker said.

But first, it must have seemed like old times. In the second-set tiebreaker, Wilander was busy giving it to Becker.

Wilander, who lost the first set in a tiebreaker, went ahead, 3-0, by winning consecutive points on balls that hit the net cord on their way to becoming winners. Buoyed by these events, Wilander went on to win the tiebreaker, 7-1.

Becker was forced to regroup because the second set turned around when Wilander had hit yet another winner off the net cord at 5-6 and 30-30. If not for that bit of good fortune, Becker would have been at match point.

Net cords or not, Becker eventually shrugged off his misfortune.

“Shots like that are just habit when you’re No. 1,” Becker said. “I just said to myself, ‘Play good service games and you will have a chance to win.’

“Those were big factors in the tiebreaker. I knew I had bad luck and I just had to take it.

“But it’s not easy to take when you’re running for 2 hours and he passes you with that type of shot.”

In the opening round-robin matches, Henri Leconte defeated Stefan Edberg, 6-4, 6-2. And in a late match, Andre Agassi defeated Tim Mayotte, 6-2, 6-4.

“I think it was past everybody’s bedtime . . . especially mine,” said Agassi, at 18, the field’s youngest player. Under the Masters’ format, one loss is not the end of the line. The eight players are divided into two groups, and each one plays the others in his group to decide who reaches the semifinals. A 2-1 record will make it. Tiebreakers between anyone with a 2-1 record will be decided on the percentage of sets won.

Becker’s victory was the most significant of the three opening-night matches in the $750,000 tournament. Agassi’s quick dismissal of Mayotte may not have been as noteworthy except for his on-court arrival when he took his pants off.

Agassi wore blue jeans, not warmup pants, and removed them, much to the delight of the Madison Square Garden fans, stripping down to his denim tennis shorts.

Becker was more conventional. After losing in the second round of the U.S. Open because of foot problems and then spraining his ankle in a recent exhibition, Becker is still suffering from injuries.

“Who’s well these days?” Becker asked.

Wilander, 24, won 6 Grand Prix titles this year, which tied him with Becker and Agassi for the highest number of victories. His 3 Grand Slam titles are the most by anyone since Jimmy Connors in 1974.

But Wilander played weakly in the third set.

Wilander lost his serve in the third game and again in the fifth to trail, 4-1. Becker, who double-faulted twice in the tiebreaker he lost, quickly regrouped around his serve and finished with 14 aces.

Wilander would only say that Becker played better in the third set and was not exactly distraught about the loss.

“I felt that Boris would be the toughest match in our group,” Wilander said. “The ones to beat are Stefan and Leconte. If I don’t beat (Becker), I still have a good chance of reaching the semifinals.”