Tennis roundup : lendl defeats chang in hong kong

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Ivan Lendl defeated top-seeded Michael Chang, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, Sunday and won the Hong Kong Tennis Championships for the third consecutive year. The second-seeded Lendl lost his serve


twice but broke Chang three times in winning the first set. Chang, ranked fourth in the world, rallied to take the second set with a break in the 10th game. Lendl, who won the Seiko Super


Tennis Tournament at Tokyo last Sunday, broke Chang in the seventh game in winning the third set. Chang saved three match points during the ninth game of the fourth set, but Lendl won the


next game and the match with powerful serves. Top-seeded Steffi Graf of Germany rallied to beat fifth-seeded Jana Novotna of Czechoslovakia, 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-3), and win the Brighton


(England) Indoor tournament for the sixth time in seven years. Graf, ranked No. 2 in the world, was two points from defeat in the 10th game of the final set before coming back to win the


match in 2 hours 32 minutes. Novotna, playing aggressively, charged the net at every opportunity in winning the first set. She then took a 3-1 lead during the second set. But after holding


serve in the fifth game, Graf broke Novotna’s serve with a crisp backhand passing shot down the line. It was Graf’s 30th consecutive singles match victory at the event. Pete Sampras won the


Lyon Open tournament in France for the second consecutive year, beating Cedric Pioline of France, 6-4, 6-2. Last year, the American defeated another Frenchman, Olivier Delaitre, in the


final. It was Sampras’ 12th title and fifth of the year. He is tied with Jim Courier for the most tournament victories this year and moved to No. 2 in the rankings, behind Courier and ahead


of Stefan Edberg. Top-seeded Petra Korda of Czechoslovakia beat unseeded Gianluca Pozzi of Italy, 6-3, 6-2, 5-7, 6-1, and won the CA Trophy tournament in Vienna. Korda subdued Pozzi with


powerful, well-placed return shots. Korda’s only problems came during the third set, when he appeared tentative against the aggressive Pozzi. MORE TO READ