Becker Overcomes Shaky Start to Win

German Boris Becker flirted with danger against New Zealand’s Brett Steven at the Australian Open on Monday, dropping a set before storming home to seal his place in the last eight.

World number four Becker defeated the 37th-ranked Steven, 1-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-2, completing the match with an ace to set up a quarterfinal clash with Russia’s Yevgeny Kafelnikov.

Becker looked out of sorts in the first set, losing five consecutive games and allowing the athletic Steven to take control at the net.

But as so often with Becker, he got a grip on himself and his game, using lightning reflexes at the net and booming aces on the important points to put Steven on his back foot and transform the match, running away with the next three sets.

Becker put his first set drubbing down to difficulty in fathoming Steven’s weaknesses because he had only played him once before in 1994, a match the New Zealander won.

“I really had to think hard and dig deeper,” said Becker who described the turning point as breaking Steven’s serve while down a break at 2-3 in the second set.

“It was a good thing I broke him right back. All of a sudden my game was a notch better.”

Becker, who also had two nailbiting five setters on his way to the last 16, has now posted his best performance at an Australian Open since winning the title in 1991.

In women’s action, Martina Hingis, taking a page out of the Michael Chang playbook, served underhanded.

The circumstances were much different, with Hingis laughing and fooling around at the time, and the surprise serve didn’t really lead to her victory.

But Hingis’ joke caught Brenda Schultz-McCarthy off-guard and provided a little levity in an otherwise brutal, 6-1, 6-4 defeat of the fastest server in women’s tennis.

Hingis, a 15-year-old Swiss prodigy who advanced to a Grand Slam quarterfinal for the first time, led, 5-1, in the first set when she slugged her fastest serve of the match--a 99-mph ace, her only one of the night.

Schultz-McCarthy retreated to prepare for another hard serve, but instead. . . .

“She was standing maybe about 2, maybe 3 meters behind the baseline,” Hingis said. “It was fun, like Michael Chang at Roland Garros, I just put a little more slice in there.”

Chang tried the same trick on Ivan Lendl at the 1989 French Open after suffering a cramp in a fourth-round match that stretched to 4 hours, 37 minutes.

Schultz-McCarthy recovered from her surprise, dashed in and managed to return Hingis’ underhander, then won the point.

The smiling, laughing Hingis barely broke a sweat on a cool, windy evening. The match was a blowout until Schultz-McCarthy made a stand late in the second set when Hingis again was up, 5-1.

Lack of control was Schultz-McCarthy’s undoing. She made 34 unforced errors. Incredibly, Hingis made only four.

At one point in the fifth game of the second set, Hingis sent up a high floater. All Schultz-McCarthy had to do was hold up her racket and tap it over the net. Instead, she couldn’t resist slamming it, and wound up hitting it wide.

“I had some good serves in the beginning, and they came back harder,” said Schultz-McCarthy, who drilled one serve at 122 mph--a record for women. She also held the old record at 117.

Hingis’ best previous performance in a major tournament was her fourth-round finish last September at the U.S. Open. Her quarterfinals opponent will be 16th-ranked Amanda Coetzer of South Africa.

“She is a little girl,” Schultz-McCarthy said. “But at times she is something special.”