Tennis Roundup : Lendl Stops Agassi in Straight Sets

The wind gusted and Ivan Lendl breezed at the Tournament of Champions Sunday.

The top-seeded player overpowered defending champion Andre Agassi, 6-2, 6-3, to reach the final of the clay-court event at the West Side Tennis Club in New York.

Lendl will play unseeded Jaime Yzaga of Peru for the championship today. Yzaga beat eighth-seeded Michael Chang, 6-4, 6-3, in the other semifinal on a chilly, windy day.

Lendl had nine aces, eight service winners and improved his record against Agassi to 4-0.

“I felt I served very well, even with the wind,” Lendl said. “Nobody likes this weather, but you can’t get frustrated by it.”

Agassi, seeded third, said Lendl’s superior strength gave him an advantage in the wind.

“He can drive the ball through the wind, and it seemed I was the one worrying about it,” Agassi said. “I take the ball early, so I need a good bounce. He waits longer for the ball and that gives him time to adjust.”

Agassi had only two break points, and Lendl saved one of them with three straight aces in the fourth game of the match.

Agassi said he needs to improve his serve to beat Lendl, who has yet to lose a set in the tournament.

“If I can’t hold serve, I can’t put pressure on him,” Agassi said.

After winning six tournaments last year and rising to No. 3 in the world, Agassi has failed to reach a Grand Prix final this year. Lendl has won three titles in 1989 and regained the No. 1 ranking.

“I have a long way to go before I can be put in a category like him,” Agassi said.

Yzaga handled Chang’s serve with ease, breaking the teen-ager six times to become the third unseeded finalist in the 10-year-old tournament.

“I didn’t have the fight in me for some reason,” Chang said. “But Jaime played well and deserved to win.”

After evening the match, 4-4, in the first set, Yzaga broke Chang’s serve at love with a forehand volley and served out the set. Yzaga then raced to a 4-0 lead in the second set.

Andrei Chesnokov of the Soviet Union earned the first-place prize of $31,500 by defeating Martin Strelba of Czechoslovakia, 5-7, 7-6 (8-6), 6-2, in the final of the $205,000 Bavarian Open clay-court tournament at Munich, West Germany.

“I am keeping the check,” Chesnokov said with a grin after receiving the prize.

Chesnokov also said two weeks ago, after winning the tournament at Nice, France, that he wanted to keep his prize money rather than send it to the Soviet sports committee, as mandated by Soviet regulations.

At Munich, Chesnokov took control when he won the second-set tiebreaker against the 22-year-old Strelba, who was playing in his first Grand Prix final after upsetting Stefan Edberg in the semifinals.

Jana Novotna of Czechoslovakia defaulted because of an ankle injury, giving top-seeded Steffi Graf of West Germany the title in a Virginia Slims tournament at Hamburg, West Germany.

Novotna twisted her ankle during Saturday’s semifinal against Arantxa Sanchez of Spain.

It was the 34th Virginia Slims singles title for Graf, whose first-round opponent withdrew because of illness.