Australian Open Tennis : McEnroe, Lendl to Meet Again in Quarterfinals

MELBOURNE, Australia —  At the end of his match with Aaron Krickstein, John McEnroe raised both arms, did a 360-degree turn to the cheers of a sellout crowd at the Australian Open and walked off the court amid loud applause.

McEnroe will be back Wednesday to play an old rival in the quarterfinals of the championships.

On center court, beneath the hot summer sun, McEnroe will run up against Ivan Lendl, with the winner advancing to the semifinals.

McEnroe, who played his best match of the tournament Tuesday when he defeated Krickstein, 7-6, 6-2, 6-3, said he is right where he wants to be.

“I’m reasonably confident I will play well,” McEnroe said. “The question is how well.

“The opportunity is there. I’m more interested in winning the tournament than beating Lendl, but obviously, it’s a big obstacle to beat him.”

Lendl, the highest-seeded man remaining in the tournament, struggled early in his match against Amos Mansdorf of Israel but still won in straight sets, 7-6, 6-4, 6-2.

All of the men’s singles quarterfinals will be played Wednesday.

Stefan Edberg, who defeated Cash after literally being flat on his back, will play Austrian Thomas Muster. Jonas Svensson, conqueror of Boris Becker, will meet unseeded Jan Gunnarsson, and Miloslav Mecir of Czechoslovakia will face 17-year-old qualifier Goran Ivanisevic of Yugoslavia.

Edberg, who defeated Cash, 6-4, 6-0, 6-2, was 2 points away from a routine victory when something unexpected happened. Edberg suffered an apparent muscle spasm in his back at 30-15 in the final game and took a 3-minute injury break.

After a trainer treated his lower back muscles with a freezing spray, Edberg lay down on the court. When he got up, he served an ace. Two points later, Edberg had defeated Cash, who was not distracted by Edberg but perhaps by something else.

There were rumors that Cash’s girlfriend, Anna Britt, had left him. There were other rumors that he was sick.

The real reason?

“None of your business,” Cash said.

He certainly didn’t play as though he felt well. During changeovers, Cash buried his head in a towel. He performed listlessly, making only 38% of his first serves and committing 11 double faults and 21 unforced errors.

“I felt good enough to get out there,” Cash said. “I thought to myself, ‘If I can get out there on the court, he might break a leg or something.’ ”

Instead, Edberg hurt his back. The extent of his injury is unknown, and there is some question whether Edberg will be able to play Muster as scheduled.

Lendl said he had difficulty with his timing in the first set against Mansdorf but was satisfied with the result. Like McEnroe, he is looking forward to another meeting in their 11-year series.

“He has so much talent,” Lendl said of McEnroe. “Hopefully, you can step right into his face from the beginning.”

Although the series has been virtually even, Lendl has won the last three times--straight-set victories in the 1985 and 1987 U.S. Open and a 4-set triumph in last year’s French Open.

Lendl pointed to two victories over McEnroe in particular--the 1984 French Open, when he came from 2 sets down to win, and the 1985 U.S. Open.

“The ’84 French, that turned my career around,” Lendl said. “At the (U.S.) Open, I became No. 1.”

Krickstein wanted to start off quickly against McEnroe but lost the first set in a tiebreaker, 7-4.

A service return that sailed wide, a forehand volley into the net and a forehand volley winner by McEnroe, and that was that for Krickstein.

“I would have had a good chance if I had won the first set because, like him, I play better when I’m ahead,” Krickstein said. “We’re both confidence players.”

As for McEnroe’s hopes against Lendl, Krickstein said McEnroe has a chance.

“Sometimes his serve doesn’t look quite as hard, maybe he’s not as quick on his feet, but he can still hit some good shots and hit some big points at the right time.”

McEnroe is reveling in his newfound role as the people’s choice, even though he is not too pleased about playing consecutive matches.

“At this stage of my career, having the fans behind me is a positive feeling,” he said. “After all these years of having the crowd against me and the pressures of being No. 1, the underdog role is a good opportunity for me.”

Steffi Graf powered her way into the women’s semifinals with another convincing victory, 6-2, 6-3, over another West German, Claudia Kohde-Kilsch.

Graf, the top-seeded player, will meet No. 3-seeded Gabriela Sabatini, who survived her quarterfinal match with Zina Garrison to win, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4.

Garrison was serving to go up, 4-1, in the third but lost that game and the next 4. Garrison held serve in the ninth game, but Sabatini won on her service, Garrison netting a backhand on match point.

Unseeded New Zealander Belinda Cordwell, filling the void left by the exit of fourth-seeded Pam Shriver, got past Catarina Lindqvist of Sweden, 6-2, 2-6, 6-1, to reach the semifinals.

It may be something of a surprise for Cordwell, ranked No. 62 in the world, to get this far, but she doesn’t feel that way.

“I’m in fairly respectable company, but I’m playing well, so I deserve to be there,” she said.

Cordwell will play the winner of Tuesday night’s match between second-seeded Martina Navratilova and fifth-seeded Helena Sukova.