Lendl fights back

Press, 27 September 1983, Page 32

Lendl fights back

NZPA San Francisco

Ivan Lendl beat John McEnroe, 3-6, 7-6, 6-4, yesterday to win the $U5265,000 Transamerica Open tennis championships. The hard-hitting Czechoslovak jumped in with a second set comeback when his American rival appeared to lose his winning touch.

McEnroe lost only three points on his three service games and when he broke Lendl’s serve in the sixth game to go 4-2 up, he looked unbeatable. McEnroe looked even more confident after the first game of the second set, when he broke Lendl for the second time and cruised into a 2-0 lead. But he ran into trouble in the fourth game. He was down, 30-40, when he served what the linesman called a double fault. The fiery New Yorker objected, claiming he had scored an ace but court officials stuck to their decision. Both held serve from then, setting up the tiebreaker, Lendl finally winning 7-4, with a service return down the line past McEnroe’s reach.

In the seventh game of the third set, McEnroe was broken with another Lendl service return down the line. He managed to stave off match point by beating the Czechoslovak with a cross court backhand volley to make the score 5-4 in Lendl’s favour.

Lendl wrapped up the match, holding serve at love and gaining the winning point by slamming the ball past the American.