TENNIS ROUNDUP : Becker Ends Drought by Winning in Sweden

Boris Becker ended a nine-month title drought Sunday, outlasting Stefan Edberg in a serve-and-volley duel between the world’s top two ranked players to win the Stockholm Open.

Becker, capitalizing on Edberg’s sloppy serve in the final set, won, 3-6, 6-4, 1-6, 6-2, 6-2, for his second consecutive title in one of the world’s oldest indoor tournaments.

Becker, who trounced Edberg in last year’s final, ended Edberg’s 21-match winning streak with his first tournament victory since the Australian Open in January.

Edberg, the world’s No. 1-ranked player who won the U.S. Open, the Australian Indoors and at Tokyo before this event, led by one set twice in the 3-hour 17-minute final.

But Edberg, playing before a sellout crowd of 14,000 at the Globe Arena, served poorly late in the match. Starting midway in the fourth set, Edberg dropped five of six service games.

“I started to lose the rhythm of my serve in the fourth set,” Edberg said. “I missed a lot of first serves and gave him the opportunity to return my second serve.”

Becker, playing only his second tournament after the U.S. Open, where he suffered a back injury, broke Edberg at love in the final game, ending the match with a perfect lob.

It was the first time he beat Edberg in a five-set match, losing previously in the 1989 French Open semifinals on clay and last year’s Wimbledon final.

“Every win against Stefan is important,” Becker said. “It feels good to have beaten the No. 7, No. 3 and No. 1 players in a row here.”

Becker, who also won the Stockholm Open in 1988, earned $137,450. Edberg, winner of six titles this year, received $73,910.

Becker beat Pete Sampras in the quarterfinals, then rallied from a set down to defeat Jim Courier in the semifinals.

Wimbledon champion Steffi Graf won nine of the last 10 games in rallying to beat Zina Garrison, 5-7, 6-4, 6-1, in the final of a women’s indoor tournament at Brighton, England.

The victory in the 2-hour 12-minute match earned the world’s second-ranked player her seventh title of the year and her fifth in the Brighton event.

“Zina played a great match, so this was very satisfying for me,” Graf said.

Graf appeared on the verge of being upset after losing a marathon seventh game of the second set, which gave Garrison a break of serve and a 4-3 lead. Garrison won the game on her seventh break point in a game that lasted 18 minutes and included 12 deuces.

But Graf responded by winning six games in a row to even the match at one set apiece and take a 3-0 lead in the deciding set.

“She moved me around a lot, and after that (seventh game) I think I played defensively,” said Garrison, who was seeded third. “If it had been a quicker game, I think I would have had a lot more energy.”