TENNIS ROUNDUP : The Lendl Truth Hurts McEnroe

Top-seeded Ivan Lendl, sharpening his game for Wimbledon, beat John McEnroe, 6-2, 6-4, Saturday and advanced to the final of the Stella Artois grass-court tournament in London.

Lendl will play second-seeded Boris Becker of West Germany, who beat third-seeded Stefan Edberg of Sweden, 6-4, 6-4.

Lendl, the defending champion, needed 80 minutes to beat McEnroe on the Queen’s Club court, serving his 11th ace on match point.

Lendl gave McEnroe a lesson in grass-court play, and McEnroe was impressed.

“He just looks solid,” McEnroe said.

“He does his homework. He gets an A-plus for preparation and I get a D.”

Until this week, McEnroe had not played since mid-February because of a shoulder injury.

Lendl spent the last two months playing on grass courts in his drive to win at Wimbledon for the first time.

“Everything is geared to Wimbledon and playing better on grass,” Lendl said.

McEnroe has won Wimbledon three times, but his grass-court skills rarely showed against Lendl. His serve lacked punch. Lendl broke him twice in the first set, each time with backhand winners, and a series of successful passing shots gave Lendl his second-set break to love to put him ahead, 3-2.

“This was sobering reality today,” McEnroe said. “He just outplayed me. His serve was really heavy, he was volleying solid and his returns are such that you have to be able to hurt him on his serve--otherwise he returns well.”

Lendl never lost his serve.

American Zina Garrison advanced to her second consecutive final with a 6-1, 3-6, 6-0 victory over Nathalie Tauziat of France in a warmup tournament for Wimbledon in Birmingham, England. Garrison will play Helena Sukova, who beat Rosalyn Fairbank, 2-6, 6-4, 7-5.

American Lawson Duncan beat Omar Camporese of Italy, 6-2, 6-3, to gain the final of the Florence International tournament. Duncan will play Magnus Larsson of Sweden, who defeated Finland’s Aki Rahunen, 6-4, 6-4.

Aleksander Volkov of the Soviet Union and Amos Mansdorf of Israel beat U.S. opponents to reach the final of the Continental Grass Court tournament at Rosmalen, the Netherlands. Mansdorf beat Richey Reneberg, 6-4, 6-4, and Volkov defeated Patrick McEnroe, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.