Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, July 6, 1990                   TAG: 9007060717
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B-4   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WIMBLEDON, ENGLAND                                LENGTH: Medium

LENDL THWARTED AGAIN

Edberg showed the best of the grass-court game. The 1988 men's champion and runner-up to Boris Becker last year, Edberg served deep, came in behind his serve automatically and won going away 6-1, 7-6, 6-3.

After dedicating his season to winning the one Grand Slam title to elude him, after skipping the French Open on clay and setting up camp in a nearby house two months ago to fine-tune his grass-court play, after dipping and weaving through the first five rounds, Lendl showed that all the practice in the world can't overcome natural feel.

Edberg will play for the title Sunday against the winner of the second semifinal between Becker, the second seed, and unseeded Goran Ivanisevic of Yugoslavia.

Lendl will head back to his Greenwich, Conn., home empty-handed once again. This was his seventh semifinal here and championship No. 1 is still to be found.

The key to the match was Edberg's serve, which he protected exquisitely. In 15 service games, Edberg gave up just 20 points and saved the lone break point against him.

He also returned serve superbly. As the royal sisters in law, the Princess of Wales and the Duchess of York, looked on, Edberg broke Lendl in the fourth and sixth games of the first set, when the top seed was looking stiff and most reluctant to approach the net. The final points in that second break were a forehand volley into the net and a double fault.

Edberg served out the set, and the final points of that game were just as telling - a service winner and a backhand crosscourt volley.

Serve and volley - the key to grass-court success. Edberg held all the keys this chilly day.

The backhand volley is one of Edberg's best shots. So is the forehand service return, and that was the key to the second set.

Lendl played much better in that set, throwing up aces and service winners and coming to the net more. He saved five break points in the seventh game, a 12-minute affair that went to deuce seven times. Big serves kept Lendl in it and he held for 4-3 on a reaching backhand lob by Edberg that went long.

Lendl then got his only chance to break in the eighth game, on a double fault and one of Edberg's few errors at the net, a forehand volley long. But Lendl couldn't convert. Edberg held on a forehand punch volley, a service winner and a return into the net.

They held serve from there, Edberg sending the set to a tie-breaker on a service winner. Lendl won the first point of the breaker on a forehand buried in the corner, but then Edberg turned it loose.

A service winner, his first ace, a forehand crosscourt passing shot and a forehand crosscourt service return put Edberg up 4-1. Lendl ended that run with a backhand crosscourt return but Edberg won the last three points on a long return, a backhand crosscourt return on a weak second serve and a forehand crosscourt return.

Edberg, a Swede who shows his emotions on court, was pumping his fists and shouting. Lendl looked worried. He had been here before, and he didn't want to repeat the past. But try as he might, he could not find the solution to the one mystery in tennis he wants most to unravel - how to win Wimbledon.

Keywords:
TENNIS