Germany’s lead cut as Becker broken

Press, 5 August 1985, Page 44

Germany’s lead cut as Becker broken

NZPA-AAP London The Wimbledon champion, Boris Becker, was broken when he served in his attempt to give West Germany victory in the Davis Cup tennis quarterfinal against the United States in Hamburg yesterday. Becker and his partner, Andreas Maurer, failed to recover from the setback, going down 6-2, 6-8, 6-1, 4-6, 7-5 to the world doubles champions, Ken Flach, and Robert Seguso. The result cut the Germans’ lead to 2-1 with the reverse singles still to come. Trailing 5-4 in the final set, Flach and Seguso restricted Becker’s big serve and two games later broke Maurer, taking five points in a row from 40-0 down. Sweden secured a semifinal place against Australia when Anders Jarryd and Stefan Edberg survived a marathon first set to beat

India’s Amritraj brothers, Anand and Vijay, 21-19, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 and move to an unbeatable 3-0 lead in the tie. The opening set lasted two hours 11 minutes. Sweden achieved a decisive doubles victory despite the unpredictable nature of Bangalore’s grass courts, laid only two months ago, and which its captain, Hans Olsson described as “very bad.” Australia fought back to move into the’ semi-finals with a 3-2 win over Paraguay in Sydney. Paul McNamee and John Fitzgerald took out both reverse singles matches to clinch the tie. McNamee played magnificently to level the tie at 22 by beating Victor Pecci in yesterday’s opening match. The Victorian, aged 30, rated as having little hope against the big-hitting Paraguayan, who was in scintillating form on the first two days of the tie, won 6-8, 7-5,

6-2, 9-7, in a match lasting three hours and 22 minutes. McNamee described the match as the most emotional of his life. Fitzgerald proved too strong for the erratic Francisco Gonzalez in the second of the reverse singles, winning 6-3, 9-7, 7-5. The win — Australia trailed 1-2 after Pecci and Gonzalez beat McNamee and Mark Edmondson in the doubles — kept intact an excellent winning record. Every year since 1974 an Australian Davis Cup team has made it at least to the semi-finals of the competition. With Sweden beating India, Australia will travel to that country for the semifinal clash, set for the first week-end in October. Britain gained a 3-0 winning lead over Switzerland in a European Zone B Semifinal when John Lloyd and Colin Dowdeswell defeated Heinz Guenthardt and Jacob

Hlasek 7-5, 3-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, at Eastbourne in England.

Earlier Guenthardt, a Wimbledon singles quarterfinalist and doubles champion with Balazs Taroczy of Hungary, was upset by Britain’s Jeremy Bates, who completed a surprise 6-0, 63, 2-6, 6-1 singles triumph in a match held over from Friday because of rain. Bates, ranked 90 places below Guenthardt on the world list, dominated the Swiss player, who never approached the form that brought him success at Wimbledon.

After his strenuous programme at Wimbledon, Guenthardt has been nursing stomach muscle and shoulder injuries and his form since has suffered. With his country facing a quick defeat, the Swiss No. 1 called on his vast experience as a doubles player to stun the British pair as he and Hlasek held a 2-1 lead in sets. But Lloyd and Dowdeswell, also seasoned doubles campaigners, bounced back to take the last two sets and clinch the tie.

In other matches, Czechoslovakia have taken an unbeatable 3-0 lead over Ecuador, while Rumania led 3-0 against Egypt after doubles play in their Bucharest tie.

Rumania go into the European Zone A final against Denmark in October.

The Danes took an unbeatable 3-0 lead after doubles play at Monte Carlo.