Lendl Beats Skoff, Wins German Open

Ivan Lendl of Czechoslovakia won his 78th Grand Prix title today when he beat Austrian Horst Skoff 6-4, 6-1, 6-3 in the rain-delayed final of the German Open tennis tournament.

Lendl had to struggle in a difficult opening set as Skoff, ranked 31st in the world, used his sharp, hard-hitting base line play to move Lendl around the court and often catch him out of position.

Skoff, who beat second-seeded Boris Becker of West Germany in Sunday’s semifinals after Becker suffered a back injury, broke Lendl’s serve to take a 4-2 lead in the first set. But a double fault at 40-30 in the next game cost him dearly.

Serve Broken

Lendl broke Skoff’s serve in the seventh game as he went on a four-game sweep to win the first set in exactly an hour.

“At first, I was hitting the ball short, but once I got my length, everything began to take shape. Overall I was very pleased,” said Lendl, who earned $135,000 in taking the title.

Lendl faced little resistance after winning the first set.

“I should have won the first set, but unfortunately I was very tired,” Skoff said. “If you don’t put pressure on Lendl, he will kill you.”

Lendl, a Czech citizen who lives in the United States, will spend the next week and a half fine-tuning his game for the French Open, which begins May 29 in Paris.

“I have never been in better shape physically going into the French Open. Nearly everything I have touched this year I have won,” said Lendl, who has a 37-2 record for the year.

Skoff collected $67,500.

In Rome, unseeded Mark Koevermans of Holland ousted No. 3 seed Kent Carlsson of Sweden 6-3, 6-4 today in a first-round match in the $1-million Italian Open tennis championship.

The 21-year-old Koevermans, ranked No. 98 in the world, used a strong serve and a steady base line game to defeat the hard-hitting Swede. Carlsson is ranked ninth in the world.

For Koevermans, who joined the pro tour six months ago after finishing high school in Holland, it was the first victory over a player ranked in the top 10. In the second round he will play the winner of the match between Jose Luis Clerc of Argentina and Australia’s Jason Stoltenberg.

In another first-round match, Aaron Krickstein beat Andres Vysand of the Soviet Union 6-3, 6-2.

Krickstein, the tournament’s seventh seed, played steady tennis against the Soviet, hitting deep shots and forcing his opponent into numerous errors.

Currently ranked 22nd in the world, the 21-year-old Krickstein has been on the pro tour since he was 16. The American, after a promising professional start, has been hampered by a series of physical ailments for the last four years. Against Vysand he played with a brace on his left knee and a heavily taped right ankle.

No. 16 seed Mark Woodeforde of Australia became the day’s first casualty among the seeds as he dropped his opening-round match to unseeded Fernando Luna of Spain 6-2, 6-3.