TENNIS ROUNDUP : Becker Can’t Forget Wimbledon, Beats Edberg

Boris Becker of Germany used a powerful serve and the memory of his last meeting with Stefan Edberg of Sweden to defeat the world’s top-ranked player, 7-6 (7-4), 6-4, 6-4, in Sunday’s final of the Australian Indoor championship at Sydney.

The second-seeded Becker, who lost to Edberg in the Wimbledon final this year, won $130,000 of the $1-million purse.

“I thought about Wimbledon before but not during it,” Becker said after the 2 1/2-hour match. “But I won’t completely forget it until I get a chance to beat him there.”

The victory allows Becker to close the gap slightly on Edberg in the race for the top ATP computer ranking. Becker is in second place, nearly 500 points behind Edberg for the No. 1 spot.

Ivan Lendl, whom Edberg beat in Saturday’s semifinal, is third. All three are scheduled to play in Tokyo next week.

Becker, who beat Australia’s Todd Woodbridge in Saturday’s semifinal, took the first set in 49 minutes. Edberg, after fighting off a set point in the 12th game, set up a second for Becker when his floating backhander went long.

Becker made no mistake on the next point, hitting a backhand well out of Edberg’s reach.

Becker persevered in the ninth game of the second set through four break points before taking Edberg’s serve, then held at love in the next game for a 6-4 edge.

Edberg finally managed to break Becker’s serve in the eighth game of the final set, after Becker had done the same to him in the previous game.

But Becker came right back in the next game to break the Swede, hitting a running forehand that nicked the corner to take a 5-4 lead. The German then served out the match, hitting an ace on match point.

Becker is 16-9 against Edberg, who took over the top ranking seven weeks ago. Edberg has won six titles this year, including Wimbledon, and had to retire in the Australian Open final against Lendl because of pulled stomach muscles.

Edberg has been playing doubles with Lendl this week, losing the final Sunday to Australia’s Broderick Dyke and Sweden’s Peter Lundgren, 6-2, 6-4.

“I’ve been playing a lot of tennis this week and I may be a little tired,” Edberg said. “But he served extremely well.”

Fourth-seeded Jonas Svensson of Sweden beat Fabrice Santoro of France, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2, to win a $300,000 tournament at Toulouse, France. It was the first tournament victory of the year for Svensson.

Santoro, 17 years, 10 months, was the youngest finalist in a Grand Prix tournament this year.

Martina Navratilova needed only 52 minutes to defeat Jana Novotna of Czechoslovakia, 6-2, 6-1, in the final of a tournament at Essen, Germany.

The tournament’s field had been cut by injuries and illness, which kept Steffi Graf, Monica Seles, Mary Joe Fernandez and Manuela Maleeva-Fragniere from playing.

Mark Koevermans of The Netherlands, playing in his first Grand Prix final, beat Argentina’s Franco Davin, 5-7, 6-4, 6-1, to win the Athens International tournament.

Top-seeded Leila Meskhi beat fellow Soviet Elena Brioukkhovets, 6-4, 6-4, to win an international tournament in Moscow.

Mark Jeffrey of Mississippi State won the first West Coast Fall Men’s Championship, defeating USC sophomore Andras Lanyi, 6-3, 6-4, at Woodland Hills.