TENNIS ROUNDUP : Becker Gets Breaks and Defeats Lundgren

Boris Becker broke Peter Lundgren’s serve four times in nine games on the way to a 6-3, 6-4 victory Sunday to win the $1-million U.S. Hardcourt championships at Indianapolis.

Becker won his first title since March in his only hardcourt tournament before the U.S. Open begins next Monday.

“It feels good. I was very close in the last few months to winning a tournament and I failed three times. But now I’m back,” said Becker, who had lost in the finals of three tournaments since May, including Wimbledon.

Lundgren’s serve propelled him to three upsets this week but failed him against the top-seeded Becker.

“I just couldn’t find the rhythm on my serve the entire match,” the unseeded Lundgren said. “He was serving really, really well and there’s nothing you can do.”

A double fault by Lundgren allowed Becker to gain his fourth service break and take the lead for good at 4-3 in the second set. The Swede broke Becker twice in the set.

Trailing, 5-3, Lundgren rallied briefly when he saved two match points on his serve to climb within 5-4.

He reached 40-love on Becker’s serve in the next game, but the West German got off a 121 m.p.h. serve and then got to deuce when Lundgren netted a backhand.

“That was probably the best game I played. I was hoping he was going to miss one first serve, but he didn’t do that,” Lundgren said.

Becker hit a winner to set up his third match point and won when Lundgren’s service return landed beyond the baseline.

“I played very, very well in the first set, I hardly missed a ball,” Becker said. “My serve was perfect. At the beginning of the second set it was a bit worse, but then I picked it up at the end.”

For the second straight day, the players were drained by temperatures in the low 90s and 54% humidity. Temperatures at the Indianapolis Sports Center exceeded 120 during the match.

“We talked before the match if we should maybe wait a little bit, but then we decided to go out,” Lundgren said.

Lundgren’s unforced backhand error gave Becker the only service break in the first set, which Becker won in 31 minutes.

The loss ended Lundgren’s best performance this year. He had won just four singles matches in 1990 prior to Indianapolis, where he defeated three seeded players--No. 7 Martin Jaite, No. 2 Andre Agassi and No. 14 Richey Reneberg--to reach his first final in more than a year.

Becker earned $137,500 in winning the tournament for the second time in three years. Lundgren got $72,380.

Derrick Rostagno of Brentwood found his game after a 5-hour 40-minute rain delay and won the $1-million Volvo International tournament at New Haven, Conn., by defeating Australia’s Todd Woodbridge 6-3, 6-3.

Rostagno, who fell behind, 3-0, in the first set, won seven consecutive games, including six following the rain delay en route to winning his first pro tournament.

The temperature after the rain stopped was 58 degrees, about 45 degrees lower than it was on the court during Saturday’s semifinals.

Woodbridge, making his first final appearance, said the temperature change affected his play.