Swedes clinch tie in tense final rubber

Press, 24 December 1985, Page 30

Swedes clinch tie in tense final rubber

NZPAReuter Munich, West Germany Sweden retained the Davis Cup yesterday with a 3-2 win over West’Germany, ending Boris Becker’s dream of a second major tennis title to add to his Wimbledon crown. Thanks to Becker's two singles wins, the Swedes had to wait until a nail-biting fifth and final rubber to clinch the tie. The unfancied Michael Westphal, ranked 51 in the world, looked as if he might pull off a sensational upset when he stormed to a oneset lead over the Australian Open champion, Stefan Ed-

berg, blasting down eight aces and dropping jnst three points in five service games. But the 19-year-old Swede, who became the youngest member of a Davis Cup winning team last year, finally settled down from an early bout of nerves to win 3-6, 7-5, 6-4, 63. “I was not playing that well today, but I was fighting,” said Edberg. “It was a tough match, one of my toughest.” The brilliant Becker, at 18 the youngest player to appear in a final, had kept

West Germany in the tie with a scintillating 6-3, 2-6, 6-3, 6-3, win over Mats Wilander, levelling the score at 2-2. In the Davis Cup, however, one player cannot guarantee to win a tie on his own and Sweden’s much greater strength in depth proved decisive. The loss of Edberg’s partner, Anders Jarryd, through influenza robbed them of their best doubles pairing, but in Wilander and Joakim Nystrom they found a second string was much more than adequate as they crushed Becker and An-

dreas Maurer for the loss of only seven games. But Wilander paid tribute to Becker’s dazzling singles displays at the Munich Olympiahalle where a crowd of 13,000 roared almost every shot on the fast felt surface. “Boris played unbelievable tennis today,” he said. “His serve on this surface is very good. My service is not good enough to beat Boris.” Becker, who took pills before the game to counter some inflamed tissue on his left hip which he said had bothered him in Sunday’s

doubles, showed no sign of being anything other than at his brilliant best Re rated his wins over Edberg on Saturday and Wilander a$ the most important of his career. There’s much more pressure when you play for Germany than when you play for yourself,” he said. “In the last two sets the crowd helped me a lot” The Beeker-Wilander clash was easily the best of the final, matching the West German’s power with the Swede’s solid strokes. Wilander, however, was rarely able to attack

Becker’s big, booming serve and gained only two breakpoints in the entire match, both on double-faults in the second set when Becker’s service began to go a little ra fFthe third set the West German was back on top and at the beginning of the fourth, he started playing superlative tennis, winning the first eight points for a 20 lead. Wilander refused to give up, but had little chance oi holding on from that point. Westphal, who produced 21 clean aces in his match, gave Edberg a real scare.

e At one-set all the West t- German had break-point for j, a 3-0 lead as th* jubilant e crowd shrieked wildly with *s excitement, but Edberg e steadied down and pulled himself back into the it match, helped by Westphal’s p own inconsistency. e A double-fault had given g Edberg set point in the g second set and two more doubles handed the Swede the third set e The West German held on if until 3-4 in the fourth set before Edberg broke him d again and served out the S) final game to love to give Sweden its third Davis Cup