Lendl, Edberg Reach Final in Straight Sets : Australian Open: Noah and Wilander are overwhelmed. Neither match lasts as long as two hours.

Ivan Lendl, playing from the baseline, and Stefan Edberg, charging the net whenever possible, routed their semifinal opponents in straight sets Friday to set up a meeting in the Australian Open final.

Lendl, the defending champion, passed Yannick Noah repeatedly when the Frenchman was at the net and outlasted him from the baseline when Noah stayed back to win, 6-4, 6-1, 6-2, in 1 hour 47 minutes.

Edberg, a two-time Australian Open champion, handed fellow Swede Mats Wilander the worst defeat in his 155 Grand Slam matches, 6-1, 6-1, 6-2. That match lasted 1:22.

“I had one of those days where I almost played perfect tennis,” Edberg said. “I think I played as well as I could. The key was I hit a lot of first serves today. I had great timing on my serves.”

Edberg, seeded third, hit 80% of his first serves in and had 39 volley winners to Wilander’s one.

“After a while you feel helpless,” said Wilander, seeded eighth.

“I don’t think he aced me once,” he said. “That’s when you feel helpless, when you hit a good return and he hits a great volley.

“When the other guy is playing as good as Stefan, you wait for him to lay off because you don’t expect him to play that good the whole match.”

From start to finish, when Edberg served out the last game at love, it was the most one-sided Australian semifinal since Wilander beat Johan Kriek in 1984 en route to his second Open title.

Certainly it was a reversal of their form two years ago on the same center court, when Wilander beat Edberg in the semifinals and went on to win his third Australian Open.

Wilander, who defeated second-seeded Boris Becker in straight sets in the quarterfinals, could muster none of the same precision and energy against Edberg. Wilander lost to him for only the third time in nine matches on outdoor hard courts.

Wilander said he didn’t experience a mental letdown or feel tired from the Becker match, but he clearly wasn’t the same player.

Edberg won the Australian Open in 1985 and 1987; Wilander in 1983, 1984 and 1988.

There was a fraction of a second in a victory by Noah over Lendl two weeks ago in which Noah jumped for a volley and hung horizontally in the air. His racket outstretched, Noah poked the ball over the net and won the point.

That type of athleticism wasn’t even enough Friday.

The victory two weeks ago came in a tuneup at Sydney. This was to reach the final of a Grand Slam, and the No. 1 Lendl is a different player when big money is on the line.

In the $3-million Australian Open, the men’s winner gets $200,000, the runner-up $100,000 and the semifinalists $50,000.

Lendl, 29, has earned more than any other men’s player in history--more than $15.7 million in tour events--and he is particularly tough in Grand Slam events. He won the Australian Open last year, the U.S. Open three times, and the French Open three times. He has also been runner-up in seven Grand Slam finals.

Noah held a 3-1 edge over Lendl on hard courts, and a 10-7 lead in overall matches before the semifinal match.

For the second year in a row, Lendl came to Australia early to work on his game with coach and former player Tony Roche. This is the first step for Lendl on his quest for the most important title for him this year--Wimbledon--which he has never won.

Noah has been under the tutelage of American coach and former player Dennis Ralston, and has come back to the form he showed nearly seven years ago when he won the French Open, his only Grand Slam title.