TENNIS ROUNDUP : Lendl, Becker Meet in Final at Stuttgart

Ivan Lendl and Boris Becker, the two top-ranked players in the world, advanced to the championship match of the $1-million ATP tennis tournament at Stuttgart, West Germany, by beating unseeded Swedish opponents in Saturday’s semifinals.

Lendl, seeded No. 1, struggled to overcome Magnus Gustafsson, 6-4, 6-7 (5-7), 6-3, and second-seeded Becker beat Jonas Svensson, 7-5, 6-2.

Lendl and Becker have not met in tournament play since the final of the U.S. Open in New York in September, when Becker won the title for the first time in his career.

Lendl will go into the meeting with a 21-match winning streak and bidding for his fourth consecutive title. In January he won the Australian Open for the second time and this month he has ATP tour titles in Milan, Italy and Toronto.

Becker, in Saturday’s match, trailed 0-3 and 3-5 in the first set, but broke Svensson’s serve to save the set and start a rally.

Andres Gomez needed just 48 minutes to defeat Petr Korda, 6-2, 6-0, to advance to the final of the $1-million U.S. Pro Indoor tournament at Philadelphia.

Gomez will meet Pete Sampras, a 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 winner over Mark Kratzmann. Sampras broke service twice in each of the last two sets to stop Kratzmann’s winning streak at seven matches. It will be Sampras’ first final.

Sampras, 18, is ranked 32nd in the world and is seeded 13th in this tournament.

Sampras got past Milan Srejber, third-seeded Andre Agassi and fifth-seeded Tim Mayotte to reach the semifinals.

Gomez is ranked 18th in the world and seeded seventh in the tournament.

Second-seeded Zina Garrison defeated No. 4 Natalia Zvereva, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3, to move into the final of the Virginia Slims of Washington.

Garrison, ranked fourth in the world, lost her serve three times in the second set, giving the last one away with two consecutive double-faults that allowed Zvereva to even the match.

But Garrison began charging the net repeatedly and started the third set with two consecutive breaks to regain control in her bid for her first title of the year.

Garrison will play top-seeded Martina Navratilova, who won 10 of the final 11 games to overwhelm third-seeded Monica Seles, 6-3, 6-0. Navratilova has won the Washington tournament nine times.

Tied 2-2 in the first set, Navratilova broke Seles’ serve six games in a row to take over. She went to the net repeatedly and finally forced the 16-year-old from Yugoslavia to hit a forehand wide for the break that gave Navratilova the first set.

She opened the second set with eight consecutive points, then fought off two break points to take a 3-0 lead.