McEnroe beats Wilander for BTI seniors title

John McEnroe stayed cool in the 90-degree heat and beat Mats Wilander 6-1, 6-4 on Sunday to capture the BTI Champions.

McEnroe needed just one hour, 18 minutes to roll over Wilander and continue his domination of the Worldwide Seniors Tennis Circuit. Down 2-4 in the second set, McEnroe won the last four games to pick up his sixth win in the senior tour's last eight events.

Wilander, the last player to beat McEnroe in a Seniors Circuit final, had trouble with McEnroe's serve and lost for the third time in a title match appearance this year.

McEnroe hit nine aces to Wilander's one and won 17 more points off his serve.

McEnroe broke Wilander's serve twice in the first set and again in the first game of the second set. Wilander broke back in the second game, then held serve to put McEnroe down in a set for the first time in the tournament.

McEnroe committed 21 unforced errors in the second set, six in the sixth game, as Wilander broke him for the second time and took a 4-2 lead.

But McEnroe settled down and made just six unforced errors after that, painting the corners with passing shots and hitting nine solid winners in winning 20 of the final 32 points.

Karel Novacek and Tim Wilkison won the doubles title with a 2-6, 6-3 10-4 Champions tiebreak victory over Mansour Bahrami and Tobias Svantesson.

McEnroe finished atop the regular-season points standings with 4,600. Wilander's appearance in the final moved him into second place with 3,215 points.

The top eight finishers in the points race - McEnroe, Wilander, Henri Leconte, Jimmy Connors, Mikael Pernfors, Bahrami, Andres Gomez and Bjorn Borg - qualify for the season wrapup tournament in June in New York's Central Park.