Becker to Play Lendl in Men’s Final

Patrick McEnroe didn’t make it easy for Boris Becker.

And Becker didn’t make it easy for himself.

“I lost my mind a little bit,” he said.

That was in the first set of this Australian Open men’s semifinal, which the German won, 6-7 (2-7), 6-4, 6-1, 6-4, Friday at the National Tennis Center.

“Calm down, calm down,” Becker said he told himself between the first and second set. “I was nervous. I was tight. I just had to calm down and play each point. All of a sudden, I served very, very well. I served great, the best match I have served for a long time.”

He finished with 23 aces, but he didn’t begin to take control until it was 4-4 in the second set. Becker then broke serve on McEnroe’s backhand into the net, and held for the set in a love game that featured three aces.

Becker’s serves “almost knocked me over a couple of times,” McEnroe said.

Still, two days after he suffered a back muscle spasm while winning a dramatic five-set quarterfinal match, McEnroe played with soreness but no pain, no brace and no fear against Becker.

“I had you guys going for a while out there,” he said to reporters.

Did he really think he had Becker going, too?

“Yeah, I thought I did,” McEnroe said. “He was obviously a little upset about the second set. He seemed a little frustrated and I felt like what I was doing was working. But he started to pick up his game. That’s why he is the great player he is.”

Becker has a shot at the No. 1 ranking for the first time in his career Sunday if he wins the final against two-time defending champion Ivan Lendl, a 6-4, 5-7, 3-6, 7-6 (7-3), 6-4 victor over current No. 1 Stefan Edberg.

Lendl will be bidding for his third consecutive Australian Open singles title, a feat that has not been achieved since Australia’s Roy Emerson won five consecutive titles between 1963 and 1967.

McEnroe will play in the men’s doubles final today with partner David Wheaton against fellow Americans Scott Davis and David Pate.