The Kansas City Times from Kansas City, Missouri • 30

C-2 The Kansas City Times Monday September 12 1988 Wilander beats Lendl for US Open title nears top ranking US Open Men Mats WllatKlar (1) Swn da Ivan Lam (1) Ciachoslovaaia a-4 -3 i-7 -4 Women Gigi Farnaixtai Miami and Robin Whlta San Josa CalH dal Pally Fandlck Sacramanto Calll and Jin Helharlngian Canada t-t Swede grinds out grueling 5-set victory From Timm Nows Services NEW YORK Mats Wilander once accused of lacking the drive to be No 1 rose to the top of the tennis world Sunday at the US ripen Wilander a 24-year-old Swede ended Ivan three-year reign as champion with a dramatic five-set victory in the longest final in Open history The victory put Wilander on the verge of gaining the No 1 ranking Wilander the 1988 Australian and French open champion beat Lendl 6-4 4-6 6-3 5-7 6-4 in 4 hours 54 minutes And he became the first man since Jimmy Connors in 1974 to win three Grand Slam events in one year guess it was my said Wilander who was beaten by Lendl in last final which was only 7 minutes shorter meant so much to me I never won here a Swede never won here and now be No 1 in the rankings It was the biggest match I ever Meanwhile Gigi Fernandez and Robin White of the United States defeated Jill Hetherington of Canada and Patty Fendick of the United States 6-4 6-1 and won the doubles championship It was the second doubles title of the year for Fernandez and White who were seeded eighth They also won the doubles crown at the Japan Open in April Lendl needed to remain No 1 until Oct 3 to break record of 159 consecutive weeks at the top of the rankings not going to sit home and worry about Lendl said King to worry about how to get it ck next Wilander is expected to replace Lendl as the No 1 player when the new rankings are released today But he may not take a chance competing for Olympic gold Wilander said he may skip the Summer Olympics where scheduled to play for Sweden having a little problem with my leg shin splints see how it feel in a few he said Wilander took a 4-3 lead after breaking Lendl for the second time liTflie final set Serving for the match at 5-4 Wilander outlasted Lendl in a 52-stroke rally and evened the game at 1 5-all Wilander then fought off two break points before Lendl netted a chest and leg injuries this year But he made no excuies for himself win three Grand Slam titles is said Lendl who has played in (even straight Open finals should be congratulated I hope it happens to me next year" Wilander has seven Grand Slam titles one more than Lendl Wilander has won three Australian Opens and three French Opens The 62-minute first set was typical of the match featuring long baseline rallies that sometimes lasted more than 20 strokes Lendl saved a break point in the eighth game when Wilander netted an easy forehand volley and held serve making it 4-4 But Wilander broke in the 10th game and won the set when Lendl made two straight backhand errors Lendl had saved a set point earlier in the game when Wilander hit a-backhand inches wide Wilander broke Lendl in the second game of the second set on a lunging stab volley and moved out to a 4-1 lead But Lendl regained his form and won the next five games evening the match After squandering six break points in the second set Lendl finally broke Wilander in the seventh game with forehand winner and pulled to 4-3 I Wilander appeared to be thrown off stride at 30-al when chair umpire Jay Snyder gave him a warning for stalling on his serve Lendl won the next two points with a forehand volley and a forehand winner Wilander took a 30-15 lead in his next service game but Lendl hit a backhand on the next point that nicked the net and skipped past Wilander for a winner After Wilander made two forehand errors and lost the game Lendl served out the 58-minute set at love think felt better Wilander said after the marathon match Wilander was the only player in the open era to make the final without facing a seed His highest-ranked opponent had been Emilio Sanchez (2 1st) The Associated Press Mats Wilander (right) who had lost six straight matches to Ivan Lendl celebrated Sunday after winning the 4-hour 54-minute US Open final Open in 1982 three (Grand Slam titles in one year) beats most of my Last year Lendl and Wilander played an Open final that featured long and grueling baseline rallies Wilander had lost six straight matches to Lendl five of their eight Grand Slam meetings and 13 of their 19 matches overall beats me seven times in a Wilander said after the match He made sure Sunday against Lendl who lives just down the road from him in Greenwich Conn And for all the talk of Andre Agassi and the US resurgence over these two weeks the Lendl-Wilan- der final assured a 15th European title in the last 16 Grand Slam events No American has won one since John McEnroe won here in 1984 and this year marked the first time since 1966 that Americans had been shut out of the Open final three straight years Lendl who will finish a year without a Grand Slam title for the first time since 1983 was hampered by backhand service return ending the match Wilander raised both arms in a victory salute before walking to the sideline where he jbegan tossing shirts and tennis gear into the stands is the best victory had even better than my first Paris he said referring to his first Grand Slam victory at the French got a coach says Taylor can forget the Heisman race Big Eight standings College beat Big Bght Overall WTL Colorado 0 0 0 1 0 0 Iowa State 0 0 0 1 0 0 Missouri 0 0 0 1 0 0 Oklahoma (10 0 10 0 Oklahoma State (I 0 0 1 0 0 Nebraska 0 0 0 2 1 0 Kansas 000010 Kansas State 0 0 0 0 2 0 Saturday's results Baylor 27 Kansas' Colorado 45 Freyio State 3 Iowa 45 Kansas State 10 Iowa State 30 Tilane 13 Missouri 35 Utah State 21 Oklahoma 28 Nbrth Carolina 0 Oklahoma Stat 52 Miami (Ohio) 20 UCLA 41 Nebraska 28 Saturday Sept 17 Baylor at low State Kansas State at Tulane Colorado attowa Kansas At Auburn Houston at Missouri Arizona at Oklahoma By Dennis Dodd Of the Sports Staff Scratch one Heisman Trophy candidate ir not that Nebraska back Steve Taylor was that bad in the 41-28 loss to UCLA Saturday night His teammates were Taylor in fact was about the only weapon that worked against UCLA He threw for two touchdowns and ran for another His 220 yards in total offense 125 passing 95 rushing would be great on most other nights except that Nebraska trailed 28-0 in the first quarter defense gave up 438 yards and was particularly inept in the first half when UCLA quarterback Troy Aikman threw for three touchdowns And when Taylor tried to personally overcome all that he wound up with three interceptions Put those factors on national television and so long for Heisman hopes Heisman Trophy is sort of like the national Nebraska Coach Tom Osborne said something that happens You make it an objective where it gets in your way What we want Steve to focus on is to play well The Heisman Trophy is certainly a tremendous honor but also become so much of a media event Early in the season you have maybe 40-50 guys running around out there as Heisman Trophy candidates if you read all the ink almost gotten a little bit out of Actually the Heisman picture is a little bit more in focus after Saturday candidacy is not officially ended but in these days of Heisman hype (posters videos calendars etc) it is certainly not in the forefront Southern Rodney Peete completed 16 of 24 against Stanford and rallied the Trojans with a game-winning touchdown pass with I minute 19 seconds left in the game Peete and the Trojans 2-0 and ranked sixth have won twice on television Aikman has had two good performances against San Diego State and Nebraska Those two will meet in a potential Heisman showdown on Nov 19 And those are the kind of elements that build a Heisman race Not that Taylor let on that he cared much about the Heisman setting your hopes on the Heisman wrong with Taylor said before the season not being realistic with yourself I think good for your team either You go out there and play for yourself my senior year I just want to have Taylor seemed primed to make a run for the Heisman and some more of that fun that Nebraska has traditionally had over the years As a relief-pitching freshman Taylor almost rallied the Cornhuskers from behind against Michigan in the 1986 Fiesta Bowl He was the Sugar Bowl MVP in 1 987 He tried talking trash before the Oklahoma game in 1987 and Oklahoma won but Taylor was selected the Big best quarterback last season And Taylor did everything right against Florida State in the Fiesta Bowl last season even though the Seminoles scored with 3:07 left and won it Saturday night could have provided Taylor the stage required for a push in his Heisman candidacy Without the proper weapons namely a defense and a gamebreaking I-back Taylor was shuttled off stage In some ways Taylor is a prisoner of the Nebraska offense Centered on an I-back the Nebraska quarterback is required to do as much handing off and pitching as passing David Humm was the last Nebraska quarterback to pass for 2000 yards (2074) and that was in 1972 Taylor has not thrown for 1 000 yards in a season yet Turner Gill the top rushing quarterback in Nebraska history before being passed by Taylor this mm From Times News Services PASADENA Calif worst nightmare was something even UCLA Coach Terry Donahue believe particularly Saturday night's first quarter in which the Bruins scored 28 consecutive points on the way to a 41-28 stomping of the Cornhuskers fans were on fire the team was on fire everything was clicking everything was Donahue said was the best quarter of football seen in my tenure at Huskers Coach Tom Osborne said: got a good whipping They really badly outplayed us in the first half We thought we were ready to play We usually get knocked around like Nebraska supposed to the Cornhuskers came in ranked second and UCLA fifth in the nation But UCLA quarterback Troy Aikman threw three touchdown passes all in the first half and finished with 1 3 completions in 22 attempts for 205 yards in a game that was over by halftime The victory ended a three-game losing streak by the Bruins against Nebraska in the last five years The Cornhuskers scored 42 points in each of those games but they fell short of that total Saturday night in front of a Rose Bowl crowd of 84086 and a national television audience was an important game from a national perspective for Donahue said was national television No 2 against No 5 UCLA had never beaten Nebraska (under Donahue) been looking at the game since last spring I thought it was a milestone for our program I approach this as a normal nonconference UCLA's 41 points were the most ever scored against an Osborne-coached team and the most against Nebraska in 20 years The previous high against an Osborne team was 38 by Oklahoma in 1977 Osborne became the head coach in 1973 Aikman threw a 57-yard touchdown pass to Charles Arbuckle after just 2 minutes 21 seconds of play and got UCLA started Arbuckle had five receptions for 100 yards all in the first half Shawn Wills a freshman playing in his second college game scored on a 50-yard run that made it 14-0 with 6:38 left in the first quarter Aikman threw a 3-yard touchdown pass to Arbuckle 3:17 later and made it 21-0 and Darryl Henley completed the first-quarter outburst by returning a punt 75 yards The Associated Press Even though Nebraska quarterback Steve Taylor had respectable numbers against UCLA the drubbing his team took will severely hinder his chances of winning the Heisman Trophy ton or (California-) Berkeley who threw the ball a lot or Houston who used to run the veer But not a one-dimensional person I wanted to go some place that had some tradition every player is a Heisman candidate-caliber player Obviously done some things to be a candidate I can always tell my kids What he likely be telling them is that he won it season had 1317 yards rushing in four seasons But yards were garnish for such I-backs as Mike Rozier and no such runner has stepped forward to complement Taylor this season not a statistic-oriented Taylor said that would help (his Heisman changes) The reason I came to Nebraska was because of their offense (and how it blended with) my talents my running ability Nebraska was the best place for me I could have gone to Washing for a toucldown with 1 minute to go in the period The only thing that seemed to go way early probably shouldn't have The Huskers got a second-quarter touchdown off a controversial 75-yard interception return by Mark Blazek Blazek picked off an Aikman pass at the Nebraska 25 and TV replays showed he was down Blazek thought he was down and ran across the field at a trot with his hands raised and the ball held aloft About 1 5 yards down field Blazek decided to play it safe turned toward the end zone and strolled across the goal line After some discussion the officials ruled that while Blazek thought he was down (and so did just about everybody else at the Rose Bowl) he actually and the touchdown stood The Bruins responded getting an 11 -yard touchdown pass from Aikman to David Keating and a 42-yard field goal by Alfredo Velasco fora 31 -point lead The Cornhuskers narrowed the deficit to 38-1 3 on an 8-yard scoring pass from Steve Taylor to Morgan Gregory with 1:21 left before half-time UCLA had 344 yards in total offense in the first half to 154 for Nebraska and finished with 438 yards to 385 for the Huskers never been down that many points in the first quarter in any game in iiy said Nebraska linebacker Jeff Mills who convinced of superiority at end execution just crisp They even beat us" Oklahoma center Latham need knee surgery Injury report (probable) WR JefT Campbell sprained ankle (probable) Kansas: Jason Priest sprained ankle (probable) OT Chris Nielsen sprained knee (out) Oklahoma: Bob Latham knee ligaments (out) QB Charles Thothpson bruised back (probable) LB Ken Kaspar bruised arm (probable) RB Mike Gaddis sprained ankle (probable) Oklahoma State: none Nebraska none He said the knee will be immobilized for about six weeks Missouri: OT Carl Bax recuperating from cancer surgery (questionable) Chris Lowe virus (questionable): LB Jcrokl Fletcher knee (out) RB Tony VanZant knee (out) Iowa Slate: LB Tyrone Davis sprained ankle (probable) Kansas Stale: none Colorado: QB Sal Aunesc bruised knee (probable) RB Erich Kissick ankle sprain From The Times Staff and The Associated Press Oklahoma center Bob Latham will not have to undergo surgery to repair a knee he hurt in the 28-0 season-opening victory over North Carolina trainer Dan Pickett said Sunday Latham an All-Big Eight choice last season sprained the left knee in the first quarter of game Pickett said Latham suffered ligament damage "It looks like going to have him back at the end of October or possibly early Pickett said I I.