Borg, Austin face serious challenges

Press, 4 September 1980, Page 28

Borg, Austin face serious challenges

NZPA-Reuter New York The U.S. tennis open favourites, Bjorn Borg and Tracy Austin, face their first serious challenges today in the quarter-finals. Borg, seeking to. become the first grand slam winner since Rod Laver won the distinction for the second time in 1969, will face the always dangerous Roscoe Tanner, while Miss Austin will face her teenage rival, Pam Shriver, who is in the midst of a fine summer comeback.

Last year, Tanner ended Borg’s dream of a grand slam (victories in the national championships. of France, Britain, the United States and Australia) in the quarterfinals;. ’ '

The eleventh seed, Tanner, won the 1979 duel in four sets, 6-2, 4-6, 6-2, 7-6, but a big factor in the final result was that the match was on a night schedule. Borg does not like to play under the lights and Tanner’s blazing serves rendered the stoic Swede helpless on numerous occasions.

This year’s meeting will be a daytime encounter and the heat, which has been more than 40 degrees C at the courtside for the last four days, could play a major role. . Both Borg, whose knee injury at Toronto seems to have healed, and Tanner are quite fit as witnessed by their four successes, so far at the open, the richest event on the professional tennis tour. Borg believes that he’ll have an edge in the daylight. "Lean see the ball better and it should be a little easier than last year, ’’ .said the 24-year-old, who has already won five Wimbledon and five French Open championships. Miss Austin has never lost to Miss Shriver, beating her 18-year-old rival nine times in,the junior ranks’:arid once on. the professional circuit. “She can be a very dangerous opponent when ■ she’s loose and has nothing to lose,”? said Miss Austin yesterday. ' ' ' Chris Evert , Lloyd, who lost the open final last year to Miss Austin, is paired , in

a quarter-final meeting today against Mima Jausovec, of Yugoslavia. Mrs Lloyd, has been most impressive in her drive for a fifth open title, losing only nine games in four matches..

Mrs Jausovec, unseeded, has not dropped a set either. She has eliminated three Californians, Kathy Teacher, Beth North and Kate Latham, and the eleventh seeded Kathy Jordan, of Pennsylvania. A night quarter-final will pair the fourteenth seed, Wojtek Fibak, of Poland, and the unseeded Johan Kriek, of South Africa. Fibak beat the fourth-seed,- Guillermo Vilas, of Argentina, and Kriek stopped Bustter Mottram, of Britain, in four-set fourth round matches.' /

Today’s quarter-final pairings inthemen’s draw will match the third-seed. Jimmy Connors, against fellow American; Eliot Teltscher, and the second seed, John McEnroe, will ?play the tenth seed, Ivan Lendl, of Czechoslovakia. .