Edberg Pulls Up and Pulls Out : Australian Open: Lendl wins when Swede defaults with injured stomach muscle.

Ivan Lendl repeated as Australian Open men’s champion Sunday when Stefan Edberg retired with a stomach muscle injury in the third set.

It was the first time in the Australian Open’s 85-year history that a men’s finalist has quit in the middle of a match. Lendl led 4-6, 7-6 (7-3), 5-2 when Edberg told the umpire he could not continue.

Edberg received massage by a trainer during the match and rubbed his sore muscles several times during breaks.

“It’s not the greatest feeling to win in this way,” Lendl said. “I hope Stefan recovers soon. It’s unfortunate, but sometimes things happen this way. He carried on for quite a while and showed great courage. I hope we can come back 12 months from now and slug it out till the end.”

The only other finalist to retire in mid-match in Grand Slam history was H. Roper Barrett, who quit after four sets against Anthony Wilding at Wimbledon in 1911.

Edberg, who was forced to retire from the Australian Open with a back injury last year after winning in the round of 16, was in obvious pain from the middle of the second set on.

The trainer worked on him after the fifth game of the second set, when Edberg took advantage of four errors to break Lendl and put the set back on serve at 3-2.

Edberg held and kept the set on serve, pushing it to a tiebreaker when he came back from 15-40 in the 12th game.

But after Edberg took the first two points of the tiebreaker, Lendl won the next six, including one on a double-fault by Edberg. Lendl won the set with a backhand passing shot that whizzed down the line.

Edberg double-faulted on the last two points to suffer a break in the opening game of the third set. He fought back three break points in the third game to hold after five deuces. But the injury was clearly slowing him and draining him of energy.

Lendl earned $200,000 and Edberg $100,000.

In the women’s doubles final, Czechoslovaks Helena Sukova and Jana Novotna beating American teen-ager and singles runner-up Mary Joe Fernandez and partner Patty Fendick, 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (8-6).