Australian Open Tennis Championships : Cash Outlasts Lendl in Semifinals and Will Battle Wilander for Title

MELBOURNE, Australia —  Wimbledon champion Pat Cash, setting his sights on a second Grand Slam title, blasted his way past top-seeded Ivan Lendl into the Australian Open final Friday.

Cash, 22, playing in front of a joyous hometown crowd of 15,000, outlasted Lendl, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2. Cash won the final four games, losing only four points.

Cash, seeded fourth, will meet third-seeded Mats Wilander of Sweden for the title Sunday. In an earlier semifinal match Friday, Wilander defeated second-seeded Stefan Edberg, 6-0, 6-7, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.

Wilander took 3 hours 19 minutes to end Edberg’s bid to become the first man since Australia’s Roy Emerson 20 years ago to win the Australian Open three years in a row.

Cash has a 4-3 record against Wilander and beat him in straight sets in last year’s Wimbledon quarterfinals. Cash also reached last year’s Australian Open final, losing to Edberg.

The women’s final between West Germany’s Steffi Graf, the world’s No. 1-ranked player, and Chris Evert, ranked No. 3, was to be played Saturday.

Cash simply out-toughed Lendl, the world’s No. 1 player, in the final set of a marathon encounter that lasted 3 hours 56 minutes.

“The fifth set came down to a battle of fitness and concentration and I came out on top,” Cash said.

“I’m not elated yet,” he said. “I know I’ve still got one more match to win.”

The last time an Australian won the tournament was 12 years ago when Mark Edmondson did it.

It was Cash’s third straight victory over Lendl in Grand Slam tournaments, but the other two had come on grass, last year at the Australian Open and at Wimbledon.

Once played on grass at the nearby Kooyong courts, the Australian Open is being played for the first time on synthetic Rebound Ace at the National tennis Center.

Cash has a Rebound Ace court in the backyard of his home.

“All these people keep telling me I can’t play on hardcourts,” said Cash, who is ranked No. 7 in the world. “I wonder what they think now.

“Lendl is regarded as the best hardcourt player in the world and a lot of people said I couldn’t beat him on hardcourt. That’s why I am happy.

“I played very well. You can’t play badly and beat the number one player in the world.”

Lendl, holder of the French, U.S. Open and Masters titles, said he was “very upset and disappointed.

“But Cash wanted to win this as much as I did, I suppose. He put me under a lot of pressure, particularly on his serve and the Australian crowd gets psyched up and that helps him a lot, too.”