Tennis Roundup : Becker Rallies to Beat Pernfors in Shaky U.S. Clay Court Debut

Wimbledon champion Boris Becker survived five match points to beat Sweden’s Mikael Pernfors, 4-6, 7-6, 6-2, Tuesday night in the U.S. Open Clay Court Championships at Indianapolis.

The 17-year-old West German, who was seeded No. 3, outlasted Georgia’s two-time NCAA champion after 2 3/4 hours to run his winning streak to 14 straight matches.

Pernfors stunned the crowd of 7,250 as he took the first set and was ahead, 6-5, in the second. In the 12th game, he led, 40-0, and was serving for the match before Becker rallied, finally winning the tiebreaker, 10-8.

“I think I didn’t know where I was on the court,” said Becker, who had been sidelined since winning Wimbledon two weeks ago because of an ankle injury. “I didn’t have any balance.

“There was no pressure. I just didn’t play so good.”

Becker began talking to himself to bolster his confidence during the second set. “I just said, ‘Fight for your life,’ ” he said.

The last loss for Becker was in the second round of the French Open when he was defeated by Mats Wilander.

In other second-round matches, Bulgaria’s Manuela Maleeva needed only 58 minutes to beat Stanford’s NCAA champion Linda Gates, 6-0, 6-2, and Ecuador’s Andres Gomez defeated Spain’s Gabriel Urpi, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4. Maleeva and Gomez are the defending champions. The No. 1-seeded Ivan Lendl opens play today.

Top-seeded Johan Kriek opened defense of his Volvo Grand Prix title at Livingston, N.J., with a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Scott McCain.

Henrik Sundstrom of Sweden ousted Simon Youl of Australia, 7-5, 7-5, in the first round of a $70,000 tournament at Hilversum, Netherlands.