Tennis Roundup : McEnroe Rallies to Win Hardcourt Title

Jay Berger, after coming within two games of winning the U.S. Hardcourt championship Sunday, says he couldn’t blame himself.

So credit John McEnroe.

“Whoever was watching the match saw John McEnroe make 12 winners in a row. . . . I don’t think I played a bad game. The guy just made winners,” Berger said after losing, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, to McEnroe in the final at Indianapolis.

Berger appeared to take command when McEnroe double-faulted twice in the fifth game of the final set. The second double fault ended the 16-point game and gave Berger a 3-2 lead.

Berger then held service at deuce to take a 4-2 lead, but won only two points in the final four games. McEnroe won the last 13 points in a row.

“I don’t think things fell apart for me,” Berger said. “‘I went out there and made the shots. I made him put the balls away. . . . He made every shot he needed to make. McEnroe is one of the quickest players. He’s amazingly quick.”

The victory, McEnroe’s third of the year, was worth $51,000. He has won 30 of 34 matches this year.

“I was starting to feel a little bit discouraged,” McEnroe said of Berger’s early lead. “I didn’t feel I was doing the things that I could do. He was playing a real intelligent match.

“I tried to go to a racket that was a little bit tighter. . . . Then suddenly it just seemed the one I picked up felt real good. . . . By the end I felt like I couldn’t lose a point and I could sense that he felt that way.”

Berger, 25-11 this year, earned $25,500.

Second-seeded Brad Gilbert rallied from a service break down in the second set and won five consecutive games to defeat Jason Stoltenberg of Australia, 6-4, 6-4, in the rain-plagued final of the Swiss Army Knife Open at Livingston, N.J.

The match was suspended because of rain in the second set with the Australian leading, 2-1, and the players on serve.

After a 66-minute delay, Gilbert went up, 40-0, in the fourth game and then Stoltenberg ran off five straight points to take a 3-1 lead. The Australian held serve to go up 4-1, before Gilbert took control.

The tournament victory was worth $18,680 and was the second straight for Gilbert, who last week won at Stratton Mountain, Vt.

Chuck Adams of Pacific Palisades, seeded second, defeated Jonathan Stark of Medford, Ore., 7-6 (11-9), 3-6, 7-6 (7-1), 6-4, to win the United States Tennis Assn. boys’ 18-and-under championship in Kalamazoo, Mich.