U.S. OPEN TENNIS : Lendl Eliminates Agassi, Will Face Becker in Final

Perennial finalist Ivan Lendl joined Boris Becker in the championship round of the U.S. Open Saturday, defeating Andre Agassi, 7-6 (7-4), 6-1, 3-6, 6-1, and tying a tournament record held by the Bill Tilden.

Today, Lendl plays in his eighth consecutive Open final, matching the mark Tilden established from 1918-25. He goes for his fourth crown against Becker, the first German in more than half a century to play for the U.S. men’s championship.

The top-seeded Lendl struggled early against Agassi, trailing in the first set and battling back to force a tiebreaker, which he won, 7-4. The set took 1 hour 15 minutes as both players stayed at the baseline.

Agassi went quickly in the second set, but won the third before Lendl put him away in the fourth, setting up the match with Becker for the title.

Lendl has a 7-6 career edge over Becker, but has lost their last three meetings, including the semifinals at Wimbledon in July when the German was on the way to his third All-England title.

Becker reached the final by beating Aaron Krickstein, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4, and then decided that he has finally figured out the puzzle of the Open, where his grass-court success at Wimbledon has never counted for much on the punishing hard courts of Flushing Meadow.

“I’ve learned my lesson here,” Becker said after advancing to the final. “You almost have to love it here. You have to forget the distractions here: the planes, the heat, the noise of the spectators. It’s difficult to play, but you just have to go out and have fun, like (Jimmy) Connors has done for the past 18 years.”

Fun for Becker was becoming the first German since 1937 to reach the men’s final here. The only other time that happened, Baron Gottfried von Cramm lost the U.S. National championship to Don Budge. The Nationals changed to the Open in 1968.

Despite his success at Wimbledon, Becker had never made it to the final of any other Grand Slam event until Saturday. “This is definitely a big moment for me,” he said. “I guess that’s why the match was difficult.”

Becker seemed headed out of this tournament early when he twice faced match points against unseeded Derrick Rostagno in the second round. But he survived that crisis and has cruised since then, winning each of his last two matches in straight sets.

Krickstein came in with a reputation for doing well in longer matches. He had a 17-7 career record in five-set matches, including a 7-1 log for them at the Open. So his strategy was to stretch Becker out.

“I didn’t feel I hit the ball badly,” Krickstein said. “I feel I missed some key shots. If I had won one of those early sets, we could have had a 3 1/2- (or) four-hour match and anything can happen.”

With courtside temperatures near 100 degrees, Becker was hardly in the comfort zone.

“The heat was the most difficult thing,” he said. “It was probably the hottest I’ve ever played in. That’s why I didn’t attack as much. It’s easier from the baseline. To rush all the time can be exhausting.”

So he stayed back and eventually won the battle of attrition, maintaining his record of never having dropped a set in four career meetings with Krickstein.