TENNIS ROUNDUP : Lendl Beats Edberg, to Face Becker

Ivan Lendl beat top-seeded Stefan Edberg, 7-5, 6-3, Saturday to set up a meeting with Boris Becker in the final of the Seiko Super tournament in Tokyo. Becker beat Richey Reneberg for the second time in a week, 7-6 (7-1), 6-2.

Lendl, who lost the No. 1 ranking to Edberg earlier this year, beat the Swede despite playing on one of his least favorite surfaces.

“Even though I played well, I still didn’t like this fast surface,” Lendl said of the artificial courts at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium.

Lendl, third in the rankings, fired two aces to hold serve in the first game, but Edberg overcame a double fault and also held. The rivals held service until the 12th game, when Lendl broke the Swede after five deuces.

“I lost concentration after Lendl kept the 11th game for a 6-5 lead,” Edberg said.

In the second set, Edberg’s concentration still wasn’t there. Lendl quickly won the first two games, with two aces and a number of passing-shot winners.

No. 11-seeded Reneberg, from Laporte, Tex., made Becker work hard in the first set, countering eight aces with deft passing shots. Once the set reached the tiebreaker, however, Becker took command.

“I beat him (Reneberg), 6-4, 6-4, last week in Australia,” Becker said. “He played much better than last week. I played consistently today.”

“I lost to his services,” said Reneberg, who won only one point in the tiebreaker and only two games in the second set.

The winner of today’s final will receive $122,700.

Gabriela Sabatini reached the European Indoor Championship final against Steffi Graf by finally overcoming Czechoslovakia’s Jana Novotna in Zurich.

Sabatini needed two tiebreakers to defeat Novotna, 6-7 (5-7), 7-5, 7-6 (7-4). Graf, who is top-seeded, struggled early, then defeated Manuela Maleeva-Fragniere, 6-7 (5-7), 6-2, 6-3.

Ronald Agenor of Haiti beat Martin Sinner of Germany, 6-1, 7-6, to reach the final of the men’s European Indoor Championships against Alexander Volkov of the Soviet Union. Volkov, seeded eighth, ousted Luiz Mattar of Brazil 6-3, 6-2, in Berlin.

Agenor was angered by several line calls and appeared to be on the verge of losing his concentration. He trailed 3-4 in the tiebreaker but won the next four points to win.

Top-seeded Andrei Chesnokov of the Soviet Union defeated Israeli Amos Mansdorf, 6-4, 6-3, to win a tournament in Ramat Hasharon, Israel.

Mansdorf tried to outplay his opponent from the baseline and, although he won some long rallies, the tactic couldn’t get him the upset in the 85-minute match.