TENNIS : Edberg and Becker Get Together Again in Paris

Stefan Edberg and Boris Becker advanced to the championship of the Paris indoor tournament Saturday and will meet for the third time in a month to decide the title.

Edberg needed less than an hour to beat Sergi Bruguera of Spain, 6-3, 6-3, but Becker had trouble against Jonas Svensson of Sweden before winning, 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-1.

Becker beat Edberg in the Paris final last year and has beaten Edberg in straight sets at Sydney and Stockholm in the past month.

“Last week I beat him quite easy,” said Becker, who has won six sets in a row against Edberg. “It’s going to be difficult to do that again.”

Becker holds a 17-9 lead against Edberg in tournament play.

“I know him and he knows me,” Becker said. “I cannot invent any new strokes before tomorrow. He knows them all and I know his strokes. It depends who is tougher in the mind.”

Edberg has been in 10 tournament finals this year and won six. Becker has won five titles in nine finals.

Svensson almost prevented the Edberg-Becker final by taking the first set against Becker and going up a break in the second.

But Becker turned up his game and won 11 of the last 14 games.

Svensson won the first game of the second set on Becker’s serve and appeared headed for the victory when he held serve after that to go up, 2-0, and hold again for 4-2.

“It was 4-6, 2-4, and I wasn’t too sure,” Becker said. “But I just thought, ‘Let’s try until the last point,’ and it worked.”

Then the match turned around.

Becker came back to even it at 4-4, gaining his first break point of the match and forcing a tiebreaker.

Martina Navratilova and Monica Seles gained berths in the finals of the Virginia Slims of California and will meet for the fourth time this year today in Oakland.

Top-seeded Navratilova turned back unseeded Meredith McGrath, of Midland, Mich., 6-4, 6-3, in the semifinals and second-seeded Seles struggled to defeat the defending champion Zina Garrison of Houston, 6-1, 3-6, 6-2.

The Garrison-Seles contest reminded the 16-year-old Seles of her last meeting with Garrison at Wimbledon when Garrison was the upset winner, 9-7, in the third set.

This time, Seles dug out of a hole in the third set. Down double-break point at 2-2, 15-40, she rallied to win that game and the next three to close out the match.

Susan Sloane beat Elna Reinach of South Africa, 6-3, 4-6, 6-9, to reach the final against Natalia Medvedeva of the Soviet Union in a $150,000 Virginia Slims tournament at Nashville, Tenn.

Medvedeva reached the final with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Elena Brioukhovets of the Soviet Union.