Tennis Roundup : How Swede It Is With Carlsson and Wilander in Final

Kent Carlsson thinks Mats Wilander has a chance to become the No. 1 player in the world before the year is out. Today he’ll try to slow Wilander’s rise in the final of the U.S. Clay Court Championships at Indianapolis.

Wilander, ranked second in the world, came from behind in both sets Saturday to turn back Joakim Nystrom, his Swedish Davis Cup teammate, 6-4, 7-5, in the semifinals. Carlsson, also of Sweden, ousted No. 10 Guillermo Perez-Roldan of Argentina, 6-2, 6-2.

“I’m going to try to play my own game and see how it goes,” Carlsson said. “I’ll see in the match if I have to change anything.”

Wilander beat Carlsson, 7-6, 6-1, in the final of the U.S. Pro Tennis Championships at Boston last week.

Saturday, Carlsson, ranked 11th in the world, built up leads of 5-1 in both sets against the 17-year-old Perez-Roldan.

The other semifinal marked Wilander’s 12th career victory without a loss against Nystrom, his close friend since childhood.

Nystrom broke serve twice and had a 4-2 lead before Wilander regained the momentum in the first set. Nystrom also led, 4-3, in the second set and it was tied, 5-5, before Wilander broke serve and held for the victory.

Pam Shriver, the top-seeded player and defending champion, defeated Alycia Moulton, 6-3, 6-2, in the semifinals of the $150,000 Virginia Slims of Newport, R.I.

Eighth-seeded Wendy White eliminated No. 5 Rosalyn Fairbank, 6-3, 6-4, in the other semifinal and will play Shriver in today’s final. In seven career meetings with Shriver, White has never won a set.

This is the only grass-court tournament on the women’s U.S. pro tennis tour. The two finalists, who will be playing for a $30,500 top prize, have never met on grass.

Top-seeded Johan Kriek fought off unseeded Alex Antonitsch of Austria, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4, to reach the final of the $125,000 Volvo-New Jersey tournament at Livingston, N.J.

Kriek will face Christian Saceanu of West Germany in today’s final. Saceanu beat Marc Flur, 6-3, 6-4, in a match of unseeded players.

Antonitsch, 21, playing in his first grand prix semifinal, was broken in the sixth game of the final set on a double-fault. He got the break back in the ninth game, shaking his fists at Kriek, who retaliated with a break in the 10th game to end the 97-minute match.

Antonitsch shook a service-line machine early in the match and later shouted an obscenity. He was fined $1,000 by chair umpire Paulo Pereira of Brazil for his actions.

Antonitsch continued to berate the umpire and was infuriated by a time-delay warning in the final set.