Becker Is Too Much for Edberg

What do you do with Boris Becker?

Well, if you want to beat him, you certainly don’t do what Stefan Edberg did Friday night, which was to just stand there and watch Becker take target practice with his serves.

Zap. Zap. Zap. Follow the bouncing ball. Nine aces is pretty tough to beat, which is what Edberg discovered when he played Becker in the Nabisco Masters.

Edberg, who also lost to Becker last month in the Paris Indoor, began another month by losing on another continent, 6-1, 6-4. It was a 1-hour 16-minute romp on the rug for Becker that has got Edberg thinking about changing strategy for the next time they play.

Asked if he would do anything different in their next match, Edberg said: “Yeah, I would play better.”

Is anyone playing here better than Becker? Maybe Ivan Lendl, who is No. 1 on the computer even if there is a convincing case that Wimbledon and U.S. Open champion Becker is No. 1 for the year.

Lendl, a five-time Masters champion and a finalist nine times, continued his consistency in this event with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over John McEnroe, who, as Edberg, had already clinched a spot in the semifinals.

But because they lost, their penance is daunting. McEnroe must play Becker in one semifinal today while Edberg gets Lendl.

McEnroe thought about his schedule, going from Lendl to Becker.

“It’s like a firing squad,” McEnroe said.

There have been 32 meetings between Lendl and McEnroe, the majority of them doubtlessly more interesting than their latest brief encounter. Lendl limited it to 81 minutes, then hit the turnpike back to Greenwich, Conn.

“He probably thought he might miss a period of his hockey game on TV,” McEnroe said.

Lendl, who is 17-15 against McEnroe, has won six of their last seven meetings. McEnroe’s sole victory in that span is a four-set decision in this year’s WCT Finals in Dallas.

McEnroe had no luck trying to solve Lendl’s serve and won only eight points in Lendl service games.

Said Lendl: “It’s always easy to win if you don’t lose your serve.”

At the very least Edberg, reduced from player to spectator against Becker, came away with renewed respect for his opponent, but also injected a word of caution.

“He is the No. 1 player for this year with the results he’s had,” Edberg said. “He believes a lot in himself these days.

“There’s going to be another year next year and he’s going to have to work even harder to stay there.”

Here is how hard Becker worked against Edberg:

He served an ace in the first game, two more in the third game while fighting off a break point, broke Edberg for a 3-1 lead, served three more aces for 4-1, broke Edberg with a backhand crosscourt pass for 5-1 and closed out the set by holding at love, a game which included a feather-light touch volley winner on set point.

This is Borisball.

“There are days like that . . . you go out there and you are in a zone,” Becker said. “You get a break point and all of a sudden, the match is easy.”

And if you are seeing Borisball in a zone?

“You just roll over him,” Becker said.

In the second set, Becker was still spinning. He lost just seven points on his serve and four of those occurred in the last game when he eventually served out the match.

The only break Becker needed came in the seventh game when he scorched a backhand return of Edberg’s first serve that left Edberg so stunned, he double-faulted at 15-40.

It was routine from there, but winning has become commonplace for Becker. He is 61-7 for 1989, he has won 28 of his last 30 matches and his 24-1 record on carpet is the best among touring pros.

The defending Masters champion, Becker is continuing a remarkable stretch of success that began here at last year’s event and continued through West Germany’s victory over Sweden in the Davis Cup final.

“Since the Masters of last year, I was starting to put it into a higher gear,” Becker said. “You keep going and going and hopefully it won’t start for a few years.”

Tennis Notes

Michael Chang’s Masters debut ended on a forgettable note, losing to Aaron Krickstein, 6-3, 7-6 (7-5), in 1 hour 33 minutes. Chang, who finished 0-3 to Krickstein’s 1-2, was blanked in the prize money department. Krickstein earned $30,000 for the victory. It was a rematch of their Volvo/Los Angeles final in September where Chang led, 6-3, 4-1, but lost in three sets. This time, Krickstein led, 6-3, 5-2 and Chang was serving for the second set at 6-5, but faltered. The similarities in the two matches was not unnoticed by Krickstein. “I was thinking of that a little bit,” he said. “But even if we had gone into a third set, I thought he looked a little tired. He had to do a lot of running.” Chang, who finished 47-16 for the year, said he was worn out. “The whole match, I’m just running so much.” Krickstein’s goal? “I didn’t want to finish 0-3 like (Andre) Agassi.