McEnroe Survives Battle of Serves to Beat Annacone for Atlanta Title

John McEnroe survived 13 service aces from hard-hitting Paul Annacone in a 7-6, 7-6, 6-2 victory to win a $375,000 WCT tournament Sunday at Atlanta.

It was McEnroe’s fifth WCT title in six attempts this year, and the $60,000 first-place prize boosted the three-time Wimbledon champion’s 1985 earnings to $437,490.

“He was making some big serves, getting him out of holes, and then hit some aces,” McEnroe said. “I had problems breaking him.”

Annacone stayed even with the top-ranked player in the world in the first two sets and finished with 39 service winners, including the 13 aces in the 2-hour, 10-minute match.

McEnroe, who has career earnings of $7.8 million after his 58th career victory, answered with 44 service winners of his own, including six aces.

Annacone, ranked 47th in the world, couldn’t keep up in the tiebreakers, losing them, 7-2 and 7-5.

“I played OK but had a bad third set and served poorly in the tiebreakers,” Annacone said. “That’s why he’s the best, he plays and wins the big points.”

Top-seeded Jimmy Connors needed just 1 hour 27 minutes to dispose of Yannick Noah, 6-4, 6-4, in the final of the Bank of Oklahoma tournament at Tulsa, Okla.

Connors won the title for the third time in the tournament’s eight-year history. The victory was worth $150,000 for the world’s third-ranked player.

Noah was successful on only 50% of his first serves and fell prey to Connors’ aggressive play at the net. Connors scored points in 17 of his 20 rushes to the net.

“I think it was my best match this tournament,” said Noah, the tournament’s No. 3-seeded player. “He was just a much better player.”

Afterward, Connors chided reporters who asked about how much longer he plans to play.

“Quit asking me about my retirement,” he said. “If you’re pushing me out, I’ll stay a lot longer.”