TENNIS AUSTRALIAN OPEN : Four-Set Win Puts Becker in Men’s Final

Patrick McEnroe pestered Boris Becker worse than the flies that flitted incessantly around center court during the Australian Open men’s semifinals.

For a while, McEnroe buzzed him with volleys and bothered him with backhands. He took Becker’s best serves and swatted them back.

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

That was the first set, which Becker lost, 7-2, in a tiebreaker, and the murmur of an upset turned into a roar by the crowd.

“Calm down, calm down,” Becker said he told himself as he hid under a towel between sets. “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.”

Becker’s best serve is among the best in the game. The second-ranked player unleashed 23 aces and a barrage of sharp volleys for a 6-7 (2-7), 6-4, 6-1, 6-4 victory over McEnroe, ranked No. 114.

“I had you guys going for a while out there,” McEnroe said to reporters after the match.

Did he really think he had Becker going, too?

“Yeah, I thought I did,” he 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 semifinal victor over current No. 1 Stefan Edberg.

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

The 24-year-old McEnroe will play in the men’s doubles final today with partner David Wheaton against fellow Americans Scott Davis and David Pate.

Someone asked McEnroe to sum up his run at this tournament, offering such choices as unbelievable, extraordinary or wonderful. McEnroe rejected them all.

“Fully expected,” he deadpanned.

Two days after McEnroe suffered a back muscle spasm while winning a dramatic five-set quarterfinal match, he played with soreness but no pain and no brace against Becker. He also played without fear of the three-time Wimbledon champion, who is seeking his first Australian title.

McEnroe lacked the power of Becker, who is three inches taller and 25 pounds heavier at 6 feet 3, 190 pounds, but the American impressed with his quickness, sharply angled groundstrokes, and deft touch at the net.

“He plays with a very quick hand, and that’s why I stayed back more and tried to rally with him a little bit,” Becker said. “I think everybody saw today that he can play great tennis and he has a great arm. He has a good eye, takes the ball early. He has a good feel for the ball, and can beat many, many guys, in my opinion, in the next couple of months if he keeps up this level of play.”

McEnroe shook off a break in the second game of the match, broke Becker for 3-2, then stayed with him until the tiebreaker. McEnroe took a 3-1 lead in the tiebreaker on Becker’s double fault, then gained the final four points on a service winner, an ace and two forehand winners.

They stayed on serve in the second set to 4-4. Becker then broke 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.

From then on, Becker was in control.

McEnroe, who probably will move up about 50 places in the ATP rankings next week, matched his brother’s best Australian Open singles showing, which was a semifinal appearance in 1983. But Patrick said that didn’t mean anything.

“If I can equal what he has done at Wimbledon (three titles in five finals) that would be nice,” he said.