Australian Open Tennis : Upsets Help to Clear Path to Final for Mecir

With Mats Wilander the first to go, followed Monday by Boris Becker, the road to the Australian Open men’s singles final might have been cleared for Miloslav Mecir.

The sleepy-looking Mecir, whose only other Grand Slam final appearance was the 1986 U.S. Open, in which he lost to Ivan Lendl, started strong and got stronger Monday night in the fourth round with a 6-4, 6-1, 6-0 victory over Christo Van Rensburg of South Africa.

Shortly after Jonas Svensson had taken Becker out of Mecir’s path, 7-6, 6-4, 6-3, the 24-year-old Czech needed only 1 hour 34 minutes to eliminate Van Rensburg and move into the quarterfinals.

Mecir was his usual talkative self afterward.

Question: Does everything seem to be falling into place, with all the seeds getting knocked out in your half of the draw?

Answer: I cannot do anything about that.

Q: You’re not complaining, presumably?

A: Not yet.

Q: Do you think you have a very good chance to make the final?

A: I don’t know.

Mecir said he also doesn’t know very much about his next opponent, 17-year-old Goran Ivanisevic of Yugoslavia, who came from 2 sets down and beat Leonardo Lavalle in a fourth-round match, 3-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-1.

Becker’s straight-set defeat was a stunning upset, but the third-seeded West German committed 35 unforced errors and made only 48% of his first serves.

Svensson, whose other big victory was a quarterfinal upset of Lendl in the 1988 French Open, was remarkably steady. He provided Becker with only 2 break-point opportunities and allowed none.

“It was his day,” Becker said. “On his day, he beat Ivan Lendl at the French Open. I haven’t seen many players beating him the way he did, almost the same way he beat me, in straight sets. When he’s hot, he’s hot.”

Jan Gunnarsson of Sweden moved into a quarterfinal match with Svensson after scoring a 7-6, 6-1, 6-2 victory over Michiel Schapers of Holland.

Martina Navratilova and Helena Sukova set up a quarterfinal meeting with victories Monday. Navratilova defeated Hana Mandlikova, 6-4, 6-1, and Sukova rallied from a 2-5 deficit in the first set to defeat Catherine Tanvier of France, 7-5, 6-4.