TENNIS ROUNDUP : McNeil Defeats Garrison-Jackson for Title

Lori McNeil lost a set for the first time all week but rallied to beat Zina Garrison-Jackson, 6-4, 2-6, 6-3, Sunday in the championship of the Edgbaston women’s grass-court tournament at Birmingham, England.

McNeil, seeded fifth, earned a berth in the final earlier in the day with a 7-5, 6-1 victory against Larisa Neiland of Latvia. Garrison-Jackson, seeded fourth, advanced by beating Chanda Rubin, 6-1, 6-2.

McNeil needed 2 hours 5 minutes to wrap up the victory and claim the $23,000 winner’s check in the $150,000 Wimbledon warm-up event.

Afterward, she teamed with Martina Navratilova to win the doubles title when they beat Pam Shriver and Australian Liz Smylie, 6-3, 6-4.

*

Sixth-seeded Michael Stich served up seven aces in beating Wayne Ferreira, 6-3, 6-4, to win the Queen’s Club championship at London. The two big servers seemed headed for a tiebreaker in the first set until Stich dug out a superb cross-court return in the eighth game. Ferreira, seeded seventh, then hit long on break point to fall behind, 5-3.

*

Arnaud Boetsch of France rallied to beat Wally Masur of Australia, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, in the championship of the Continental Grass Court Championships at Rosmalen, Netherlands. Boetsch, seeded eighth in the tournament and ranked 29th in the world, earned his first ATP tournament victory and became the first Frenchman to win a grass-court event since Henri Leconte at Sydney in 1985.

Before the final, seventh-seeded Masur beat third-seeded MaliVai Washington, 7-5, 7-6 (7-5) in the completion of a rain-delayed semifinal.

*

Thomas Muster of Austria defeated Jordi Burillo of Spain, 6-1, 7-5, to win the clay-court City of Florence ATP tournament in Italy for the third consecutive year.

Muster earned $39,600 and Burillo, the qualifier who ousted second-seeded Emilio Sanchez, collected $23,330.