TENNIS ROUNDUP : McEnroe Gets His First Title of Year

It took 4 1/2 hours, but John McEnroe rallied to beat Goran Ivanisevic of Yugoslavia, 6-7 (7-4), 4-6, 7-6 (7-3), 6-3, 6-4, Sunday in the Swiss Indoor tournament at Basel for his first victory in more than a year.

The victory gave McEnroe his 76th singles title, but his first since August 1989. It was his first appearance in a final this year.

“It wasn’t easy to play a five-set match at the end of a very tiring week,” McEnroe said. “The important thing for me was to win a tournament.”

McEnroe drew on his experience in the final set and broke Ivanisevic’s serve at 1-1. Ivanisevic, 19, never recovered and stood helplessly as McEnroe finished the match with an ace.

Mary Joe Fernandez won her first singles title, beating fellow American Amy Frazier, 3-6, 6-2, 6-3, in a women’s tournament at Tokyo. “I played very well,” Fernandez said. “I am very tired (because) I had a long week, but am very happy.”

Brad Gilbert beat fellow American Aaron Krickstein, 6-3, 6-1, to win the Queensland Open at Brisbane, Australia.

The top-seeded Gilbert dominated the second-seeded Krickstein, who held serve only twice and never found his rhythm. Krickstein had not lost a set in his previous four matches in the tournament.

“I played probably my best week of tennis of the year,” Gilbert said. “I turned up my game a bit. I started attacking and he had a day when things didn’t go his way.”

Steffi Graf of West Germany, the world’s top-ranked player, took just 50 minutes to defeat Arantxa Sanchez Vicario of Spain, 6-1, 6-1, in the Leipzig Open, the first--and last--women’s Grand Prix tournament to played in East Germany.

Graf broke Sanchez’s serve almost at will in winning the first set in only 24 minutes. The second set was practically a repeat of the first, lasting just 26 minutes.