TOKYO: Stefan Edberg of Sweden underlined his number one ranking by overwhelming Ivan Lendl of Czechoslovakia here on Sunday to retain the men’s singles title at the $1.15 million Japan Open Tennis Tournament.
Defending champion Edberg who regained his number one spot from Boris Becker of Germany in February after losing it at the Australian Open in January scored a straight ward 6-1 7-5 6-0 victory over the former world number one in the best-of-five final.
“This is the best tennis I played so far this year and probably one of the best matches I’ve ever played” said Edberg 25 who advanced to the finals here for a fifth consecutive year.
“Maybe Ivan doesn’t play his best tennis that’s understandable. But I kept the pressure on him and I was dealing with everything very very well; the Wimbledon champion said.
The Swede repeatedly came to the net on Lendl’s second serve and successfully broke in the fourth game to lead 3-1 when the Czechoslovak misfired a forehand passing shot.
The Swede also the winner here in 1987 and 1989 saved one break point against him in the next game with a service winner and went on to take the following four games.
“I felt from the fourth game of the first set that anything I touched has been wrong and anything he did was right” said Lendl 31.
After losing the first game of the second set Lendlh recovered from a break down twice to tie the score at 5-5 but he was never able to take another game off the spirited Swede.
“He played great tennis at 5-4 and I was a little bit disappointed in losing that game but I got back to work really hard to break him” said Edberg.
Lendl erased the first match point with a backhand service return winner but the one-hour 56minute fight ended abruptly on the next match point when Edberg completed it with a service winner.
“Throughout the second set I was always playing to catch up but something went wrong again the Czechoslovak said adding “of course in the third set it was just a joke.”
Article extracted from this publication >> April 26, 1991
