McEnroe Is Again Forced to Three Sets, Faces Lendl

For the second day in a row, John McEnroe was forced to three sets Saturday at Forest Hills, N.Y.

This time, he pulled out a 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 victory over Sweden’s Henrik Sundstrom to move into today’s final round of the Tournament of Champions, where he will meet Ivan Lendl.

Lendl, who is seeded No. 2 behind McEnroe, also had to go three sets to beat No. 3-seeded Aaron Krickstein, 6-1, 2-6, 6-1.

This is the second consecutive year that the world’s top ranking players will play in the final of this $615,000 tournament. McEnroe won last year’s match, 6-4, 6-2. Overall, he is 12-9 against Lendl, winning 10 of their last 12 matches.

“Tomorrow should be a close match,� McEnroe said. “I haven’t seen him play all that much (this year), but we’re both playing well.�

McEnroe has a match record of 34-1 this year, while Lendl has won his last three tournaments.

McEnroe had grudgingly provided some real excitement Friday when he struggled for 2 hours 43 minutes before beating unseeded Claudio Panatta of Italy, 3-6, 6-2, 7-6.

Against Sundstrom, McEnroe had three aces and five double-faults, while the 21-year-old Swede had eight aces and two double-faults.

Lendl said the difference in the three sets he played came because of Krickstein’s powerful ground strokes and the Czech’s mistake in strategy.

“I thought I played well in the first set,� Lendl said. “In the first game of the second set, he started to hit harder, and I made a mistake in strategy. I tried to hit hard with him.

“In the third set, I started lobbing, taking the pace off the ball and making him hit his backhand high.�

It worked to perfection as Lendl reeled off the final five games of the match.

Continuing her comeback, Dianne Balestrat of Australia upset fifth-seeded Gigi Fernandez of Puerto Rico, 6-1, 6-3, to move into the final of the $200,000 Australian Women’s Indoor championships at Sydney.

Balestrat, who upset second-seeded Kathy Jordan in Friday’s quarterfinals, will face top-seeded Pam Shriver, who beat fourth-seeded Alycia Moulton, 6-3, 6-2, in the other semifinal Saturday.

Balestrat, who as Dianne Fromholtz was ranked fourth in the world in 1979, made her return to the tour in October after a layoff of 18 months.

Sweden’s Joakim Nystrom and West Germany’s Hansjoerg Schwaier reached the final of a $100,000 tournament at Munich, West Germany. Nystrom beat Jose-Luis Clerc of Argentina, 6-2, 6-4, and Schwaier defeated Diego Perez of Uruguay, 6-4, 6-4.