TENNIS ROUNDUP : Borg Is a Big Hit in Victory

The trademark headband, the long, golden hair, the powerful ground strokes and the rocket serve were all there and, for a while, Bjorn Borg looked like the same player who won five consecutive Wimbledon championships.

But Borg, who often overwhelmed Harold Solomon with his serve in Friday’s second-round match in the Infiniti Champions tournament, had to hold off a Solomon rally for a 6-0, 3-6, 7-6 (8-6) victory at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks.

Second-seeded Borg thrilled the sellout crowd of 3,104 when he broke Solomon’s service three times in the first set and registered several of his 15 aces and 14 service winners.

But by the third set, Solomon, 41, had turned it around. Instead of trying to hit with the 37-year-old Swede, Solomon set up Borg with lobs and outran him.

After Solomon took the second set, 6-3, with Borg double faulting the final point, Solomon rallied back from 5-3 while Borg ran out of energy in the third set. Borg, serving for the match, shanked an easy backhand volley and a did the same with a forehand on the next point to let Solomon back in it, 5-5.

“The first set, I played unbelievably well,” Borg said. “Then he worked himself into the match and made some great shots. It was great tennis--a great match.”

Solomon kept Borg on the baseline through much of the tiebreaker and he hit a forehand winner to make it 6-6. But Solomon fell short when his return shots went long on the final two points.

In other singles matches, John Lloyd defeated Vitas Gerulaitis, 6-4, 6-2, and Johan Kriek defeated Guillermo Vilas, 6-3, 7-5.

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Top-seeded Stefan Edberg of Sweden overcame nine double faults and held off a challenge from Amos Mansdorf of Israel, 7-6 (7-4), 1-6, 6-4, Friday to reach the semifinals of the Swiss Indoors tennis tournament at Basel, Switzerland.

Second-seeded Michael Stich overpowered Sweden’s Magnus Larsson, 6-2, 6-1.

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Michael Chang and Jonas Svensson, the only seeded players left in the Malaysia Salem Open at Kuala Lumpur, advanced to the semifinals with straight set victories.

Second-seeded Chang defeated Sweden’s Jonas Bjorkman, 7-5, 6-1, and another Swede, seventh- seeded Svensson, beat Jacco Eltingh of the Netherlands, 6-3, 6-2.