Tennis Roundup : Mayotte Beats Agassi, Plays Becker; Navratilova Loses

Tim Mayotte resurfaces about this time each year at the U.S. Pro Indoor Tennis Championships.

The two-time defending champion came to life once again Saturday, advancing to his fourth consecutive final by upsetting top-seeded Andre Agassi, 6-4, 6-4, in a semifinal match at Philadelphia.

The victory moved the third-seeded Mayotte into today’s final against second-seeded Boris Becker of West Germany, who defeated fourth-seeded Mikael Pernfors, 6-3, 6-2, in the other semifinal.

Mayotte, who withdrew from the title match against Ivan Lendl in 1986 because of a pulled stomach muscle, defeated John McEnroe in 1987 and John Fitzgerald of Australia in 1988.

“I thought I volleyed really well today,” Mayotte said. “I was covering the court and the net really effectively. I think a lot of it was set up with some pretty good serving.”

Mayotte won 65 points on 96 approaches to the net, compared to 10 points on 17 approaches for Agassi. Mayotte also won 80% of his first-serve points.

“The thing that saved him was his service percentage,” Agassi said. “If he had come down 5% or 10% on his first serve, it would have been a different story.”

Becker dominated Pernfors, giving up only 12 points in the first six games and taking a 5-1 lead. Becker started the second set by breaking Pernfors’ serve and finished with a love game and his 10th service ace.

Fourth-seeded Larisa Savchenko of the Soviet Union upset top-seeded Martina Navratilova, 6-1, 6-4, to advance to the final of the $250,000 Virginia Slims of California tournament in Oakland.

In the other semifinal, third-seeded Zina Garrison of Houston broke service eight times to score a 7-5, 6-4 victory over second-seeded Natalia Zvereva of the Soviet Union.

Navratilova lost her serve three times in the first set. Savchenko was up, 2-1, when Navratilova double-faulted, and the Russian took a two-game edge followed by a three-game edge as the Russian held service.

In the sixth game, Navratilova won only one point, again having trouble on the first serve, and Savchenko closed out the set, forcing her opponent to hit three backhand errors.

In the second set, the service break came in the ninth game at 30-40 when Savchenko hit a passing backhand shot that went over Navratilova’s right shoulder. Savchenko then served out the match.

Garrison, who won the first two games of each set, survived six servce breaks in her first meeting ever with Zvereva. The two held service only eight times in 22 games.

Garrison, 25, won this tournament two years ago.

Second-seeded John McEnroe defeated fourth-seeded Jonas Svensson of Sweden, 6-3, 7-5, to gain today’s final of the $291,000 Lyon Grand Prix tournament at Lyon, France.

McEnroe, ranked eighth in the world, will meet top-seeded Jakob Hlasek of Switzerland. Hlasek defeated fifth-seeded Anders Jarryd of Sweden, 6-3, 6-3, in the other semifinal.

After winning the first set, McEnroe had to rally in the second set. But Svensson served two consecutive double faults to give McEnroe a service break in the 11th game of the second set, after Svensson led earlier, 4-1.

“I saw he was coming in a lot, and that puts a lot of pressure on me,” Svensson said. “I went for it and I didn’t get them.”

After going ahead, 6-5, McEnroe won the match with a service-return error by Svensson, a delicate stop volley, an ace and a service winner.

McEnroe has not lost a set in the tournament, his third of the year. His only losses this year were to Lendl in the Australian Open and to Becker at Milan last week.

Hlasek needed only an hour to eliminate Jarryd, who had dominated the Czech-born Hlasek early in their pro careers.