Becker steers Germans

Press, 30 May 1989, Page 30

Becker steers Germans

NZPA-Reuter Duesseldorf The world number two, Boris Becker, headed towards the French Open in sparkling form after steering West Germany to victory over Argentina in the final of the World Team Cup men’s tennis tournament yesterday. The 21-year-old world number two overcame clay-court specialist Guillermo Perez-Roldan 6-0, 2-6, 62, in the first singles before teaming up with Eric Jelen to win the deciding doubles and earn West Germany its first title in the 11-year-old tournament. Becker and Jelen secured the 2-1 win with a 6-4, 7-5, win over Gustavo Luza and Javier Frana after Argentina’s Martin Jaite had put the teams level at 1-1 by

beating Carl-Uwe Steeb 6-4, 6-3, in the second singles. Becker, who has been working hard in the last month to adapt his strong serve-and-volley game to the slow clay courts that await him in Paris, was in faultless form as he took the first set 6-0 against PerezRoldan in just 26 minutes. The 19-year-old Argentine won just seven’points as Becker, seeded second for Roland Garros, put on a superb display of fierce serving, accurate baseline play and deft volleying at the net which will have sent a clear warning to his rivals on the eve of the second Grand Slam event of the year. But the West German lost concentration in the second set, in which he went down 6-2, before taking the

match in one hour 54 minutes to secure the Davis Cup holder an early 1-0 lead.

“I don’t think I have ever hit the ball so well on clay as I did in the first seven games,” he said. “But I knew things couldn’t really get any better in the second and although I lost it, I was confident I was going to win the match.”

While the French Open top seed, Ivan Lendl, chose to practise and relax in Monte Carlo in preparation for Paris, Becker has used four tough singles matches here as part of his build-up.

“It seems to have been almost perfect preparation. I have won all four matches and it has been better than training,” he said.