Edberg and Becker may meet in final

Press, 22 June 1989, Page 43

Edberg and Becker may meet in final

NZPA-Reuter London Title favourites Stefan Edberg, the defending champion, and Boris Becker could meet in the Wimbledon men’s tennis final for the second consecutive year after coming out in opposite halves of the draw yesterday. West German Becker, the third seed beaten in four sets by Edberg in the 1988 final, faces another likely repeat of last year — a semi-final against the world No. 1, Ivan Lendl, of Czechoslovakia.

If the seedings work out Edberg, whose serve-and-vol-ley game is ideally suited to grass, will play fellow-Swede Mats Wilander, like Lendl a player who prefers clay but shares the Czechoslovak’s burning ambition to win Wimbledon at least once. But Wilander, the fourth seed, has a minefield to pass through in the shape of a former champion, John McEnroe, seeded fifth, in his attempt to win Wimbledon a fourth time.

Becker, the Wimbledon champion as a 17-year-old in 1985 and again a year later, and Lendl — who has never won the world’s oldest tournament and is top-seeded this time despite his sparse

grass court success — wound up in the half of the draw which also contained the seventh-seeded Miloslav Mecir, of Czechoslovakia, Lendl’s projected quarterfinal opponent. But Lendl has an awkward opening match against Nicolas Pereira, the Venezuelan who defeated Edberg in the first round of the London grass court championship a week ago. Becker’s expected quarterfinal opponent is Jakob Hlasek, of Switzerland, the sixth seed. Steffi Graf, of West Germany, the overwhelming favourite to retain the women’s title, was less than kindly treated by the draw. She has a fourth-round encounter awaiting her against Yugoslav Monica Seles, the 15-year-old who took her to three sets in the semi-finals of the French Open and then a quarter-final against Spaniard Arantxa Sanchez. Sanchez, aged 17, beat Graf in the final of the French Open, the West German’s first singles defeat in a Grand Slam tournament since she lost to Martina Navratilova in the final of the 1987 U.S. Open.

But Graf may relish a return meeting with Sanchez on Wimbledon’s fast grass, a surface the Spaniard does not like. She has never travelled beyond the first round at Wimbledon. Navratilova and Chris Evert, seeded second and fourth respectively, must reach the final if they are to have their tenth singles meeting at Wimbledon. In other words Evert, competing at Wimbledon since 1972, would have to beat Graf in the semi-finals, an unlikely achievement given the American’s waning form this year. Navratilova, seeking a record ninth singles title, is seeded to play the third seed, Argentine Gabriela Sabatini, in the semi-finals. The top New Zealand woman, Belinda Cordwell, faces a 17-year-old American left-hander, Carrie Cunningham, first up. Cordwell should progress to the third round where she is likely to meet the tenth seed, Jana Novotna, of Czechoslovakia. New Zealand’s Julie Richardson is unlikely to make much progress. Her firstround opponent is South African Ros Fairbank, ranked No. 37.