Lendl Goes Two Sets Down, but Not Out : Wimbledon: He rallies from a 4-6, 2-6 deficit to beat former Michigan star Washington and advance to the fourth round.

For 3 hours 17 minutes Saturday, Ivan Lendl stood toe to toe with his own vision of Buster Douglas. But every time he threw a Tyson-like punch, the young contender, MaliVai Washington, connected with a roundhouse of his own.

Finally, after struggling from two sets down and a service break down in the fifth set, third-seeded Lendl advanced to the fourth round of the Wimbledon tennis tournament. He left Court 2 on his feet, but he knew that Washington had had him on the ropes before Lendl won, 4-6, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4, 7-5.

“I thought it was a remote possibility that I was out of the tournament,” Lendl said afterward.

More like a real possibility.

Washington, a star at the University of Michigan in the late 1980s, took a two-set lead and showed no signs of backing off in the third. He fought off two break points at 2-3 and appeared oblivious to the feeling that he should not have been doing this at Wimbledon to one of the world’s premier players.

Serving at 4-5, he hit a volley wide for 30-all and hit a shallow serve that Lendl slapped past him with a cross-court backhand for a break point. Then, Washington did the unthinkable. He double faulted.

“If I could have that point back, I’d take it,” Washington said.

But again, Washington refused to back off. He gave up a break, then got it back two games later and was on serve again when he served at 4-5. But he ended up needing to save one break point at 15-40 and then pushed a backhand volley long to give Lendl the fourth set.

“When I was up, two sets to love,” Washington said, “I definitely wasn’t feeling like, ‘OK, well let’s just go in and run through the third.’ ”

Washington started the fifth set with a service break, and Lendl didn’t get that back until Washington double faulted for break point while serving at 4-3. Then Lendl ripped a winning return.

Like two heavyweights, arms weary in the late rounds, they struggled to 5-5, then to Washington serving at 5-6 after surviving a match point at 4-5. Finally, Lendl crushed a service return at Washington’s feet at 30-40 and the champion had weathered the contender.

Afterward, Lendl, whose victory gave him 200 in Grand Slam tournaments, summed up by saying, “I started hitting some good shots when it really mattered.”

And Washington said: “He is definitely No. 3 in the world for a reason.”

Among the other men’s matches, John McEnroe set up a Tuesday meeting with top-seeded Stefan Edberg by beating Frenchman Jean-Philippe Fleurian, 6-2, 7-6 (7-4), 6-1; Edberg continued to coast with a 6-1, 6-3, 6-2 victory over Christo Van Rensburg; French Open champion Jim Courier beat Arnaud Boetsch, 6-2, 6-2, 6-0, and veteran Jimmy Connors, playing in his 19th Wimbledon, lost to Derrick Rostagno, 7-6 (7-2), 6-1, 6-4.

McEnroe said he was feeling better with each match, serving sharper and by no means thinking he has no chance against Edberg.

“He’s probably playing, right now, as well as he will ever play,” McEnroe said. “But I’ve beaten him enough to know how, and I still know my way around here.”

Rostagno, who defeated eighth-seeded Pete Sampras Saturday and who took out McEnroe in the first round last year, is a former Stanford player who lives in Pacific Palisades and has a reputation for being an up-and-down player.

“That may be true,” Rostagno said. “I’m working on that.”

Rostagno said he enjoyed the wild crowd on Centre Court and got energy from it, even though he knew most of the fans were rooting for Connors.

“That’s all right,” Rostagno said. “I have my own little band of fans, and they are pretty loyal.”

The women’s draw remained pretty much as established, with the top five seeded players--Steffi Graf, Gabriela Sabatina, Martina Navratilova, Aranxta Sanchez Vicario and Mary Joe Fernandez--all winning in straight sets.