Edberg Pulls Up, Then He Pulls Out : Australian Open: Lendl wins when Swede defaults because of a torn stomach muscle.

An Australian Open marred by injuries and John McEnroe’s stormy exit ended on a sour note Sunday as Ivan Lendl repeated as men’s champion when Stefan Edberg quit with a torn stomach muscle.

It was the first time in the Australian Open’s 85-year history that a men’s finalist 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 said he hurt himself in the last service game of his semifinal victory over fellow Swede Mats Wilander. Edberg, who has had strained abdominal muscles several times in the past, felt the pain from the start of Sunday’s match.

“It kept getting worse and worse,” he said. “I could only serve at 75%. That wasn’t working too well. I was struggling from the beginning. It didn’t feel right, and once it gets into your head, it becomes psychological. And if you continue, you can only make your muscle worse.”

David Bolzonello, the tournament physician, said Edberg’s abdominal strain was on his left side, “and that’s where he pulls through on his service motion. I advised him a minimum of two weeks rest.

“I think he made the right decision by not progressing. I think he would have made it worse.” the doctor said.

The tournament has had problems for two weeks.

Women’s second seed Gabriela Sabatini and Australia’s Mark Woodforde were forced from their third-round matches with sprained ankles.

McEnroe was thrown out from his fourth-round match for staring at a lineswoman, swearing at the umpire and cracking a racket.

Edberg received massage by a trainer and put ice on his stomach during the final and rubbed his sore muscles several times during changeovers.

“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.”

Lendl said that despite the tainted result, “a win is a win. Five to 10 years from now, not too many people will remember” that he won by an injury. “It doesn’t feel as great as if I had won it fair and square.”

Lendl said he was surprised that Edberg came out to play knowing he was injured.

Once Lendl realized that Edberg was hurt, he said he told himself, “Hang in there and make him play every point. An injury like that gets worse the longer you play.”

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 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.

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

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 serve and pushed the set 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, and took 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 from 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 played well but not as crisply as he did earlier in the tournament and might not have beaten a healthier Edberg. Lendl hit an unusually high 17 backhand errors in the first set, 16 in the second sets and 10 in the abbreviated third set. His total of 67 errors compared to 56 by Edberg.

“I thought if I had a chance to win the second set, maybe I could have worked my way through winning the third set,” Edberg said.

But after dropping the tiebreaker, Edberg said he “knew there was no way I could finish the match.”

Lendl, who started a fad among the other players and fans when he wore a French Foreign Legion-style hat for sun protection in his previous matches here, came out hatless this time on a cool, overcast day.

Edberg, one of the quieter players on the tour, had one of more boisterous cheering sections as shirtless Swedish men with one letter each of his name written on their chests led cheers for him.

Many of the dozens of Swedish fans in the crowed of 15,000 had their country’s flag painted on their faces and often chanted his name between points.

Edberg, broken the first time he served against Lendl, certainly didn’t look as though he had any weaknesses in his 6-1, 6-1, 6-2 semifinals victory over Wilander.

Edberg laughed when asked about the turning point in that match.

“The first point,” he said with a smile, adding that he had “one of those days where I almost played perfect tennis.”