Jana Novotna

WIMBLEDON, England -- Her right wrist aches, her back could give out at any time and she hasn't won a grass-court match in two years.So, of course, Steffi Graf, the five-time champion, is the overwhelming favorite to claim the Wimbledon women's title.With Martina Navratilova out of the Wimbledon singles draw for the first time since 1972, Graf is expected to carry the show this year. She'll even add a little spice to the doubles, teaming with Navratilova, who is here to plug a mystery novel and work as a television commentator.

MELBOURNE, Australia -- Boris Becker was not interested in waiting for a computer to confirm he is the No. 1 male tennis player in the world.The German star let the jam-packed stadium of 15,000 spectators know he is the best by sizzling an unstoppable forehand return on his second match point to beat Ivan Lendl, 1-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4, yesterday and capture his first Australian Open championship and the fifth Grand Slam title of his career.After the victory, Becker, who had to overcome a stiff back early in the match, was jubilant, smiling broadly and jumping up and down with his finger in the air to indicate his new stature, as the victory moved him past Stefan Edberg on the Association of Tennis Professionals-IBM computer.

ADELAIDE, Australia -- Magnus Larsson earned the biggest victory of his career yesterday, toppling top-seeded Boris Becker in the first round of the Australian Hardcourt tennis championships.Larsson, 20, from Vaxjo, Sweden, ran past the three-time Wimbledon champion, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (7-2). It was Becker's first loss in the opening round of a tournament since he was beaten by Goran Ivanisevic of Yugoslavia in last year's French Open."Nobody expects to win against Boris Becker," Larsson said.

WASHINGTON -- Six months after she turned pro, 17-year-old Lindsay Davenport of Palos Verdes, Calif., got a taste of the big leagues here last night.Davenport and her partner, Gabriela Sabatini of Argentina, were out-dueled by Spain's Aranxta Sanchez Vicario and Jana Novotna of the Czech Republic, 7-5, 6-3, before 4,026 fans on the third night of the Elizabeth Arden Women's Tennis Association Challenge at the William H. G. FitzGerald Tennis Center.Lutherville's...

WASHINGTON -- The Arantxa Sanchez Vicario express made a stop here last night without being derailed.The third-ranked player in the world used powerful ground strokes and some untimely unforced errors from Mary Joe Fernandez to win, 6-2, 6-4, on the second night of the Elizabeth Arden Women's Tennis Association Challenge at the William H. G. FitzGerald Tennis Center.In the second match, No. 12 Manuela Maleeva-Fragniere of Switzerland rallied from a set down and beat No. 23 Lori McNeil of Houston, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4.The four players were half of eight top-ranked players in the world who took part in the team competition.

Pam Shriver thought she was going to treat Baltimore tennis fans to a comeback performance by Steffi Graf, the former No. 1 player in the world who was recovering from knee surgery, last November. But Graf's knee didn't cooperate.So today, at a late-morning news conference, Shriver will again fTC announce Graf as one of her top players for this year's Chevy Chase Bank Tennis Challenge, to be held Nov. 24.Completing the singles field, and spicing up the event, will be 1998 Wimbledon champion Jana Novotna.

WIMBLEDON, England -- The longest doubles final in Wimbledon history -- a five-set, 73-game men's championship -- was suspended last night because of darkness.John McEnroe and Michael Stich were tied with fourth seeds Richey Reneberg and Jim Grabb at 13-13 in the final set. They had played 4 hours, 27 minutes.NBC cut away for the U.S.-Venezuela basketball game at 4 p.m. EDT with the match tied at 10-10 in the fifth set. That was after the network had extended its tennis coverage by one hour.

NEW YORK -- The women's tennis year came to a close at Madison Square Garden yesterday with the identical form that things have taken since the afternoon of April 30: Steffi Graf blasting jackhammer forehands, Steffi Graf winning, the haunting memory of Monica Seles perhaps receding somewhat but still very much casting its gloomy shadow everywhere women are hitting tennis balls.With a 6-1, 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 victory over a game but match-weary Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, the top-seeded Graf captured the Virginia Slims Championships, her eighth tournament victory of the nine she has entered since Citizen Cup. That was April 30, in Hamburg, Germany, where Seles was stabbed by a deranged Graf fan.It was Graf's third Slims championship title, but her first since 1989.

NEW YORK -- Finally, Pam Shriver won a women's Grand Slam doubles title without Martina Navratilova.It happened yesterday in the final of the U.S. Open, with Shriver and Natalia Zvereva outlasting Jana Novotna and Larisa Savchenko, 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), at Louis Armstrong Stadium."I feel now like I don't have to do another darn thing," said Shriver, 29, of Lutherville. "I had to get one on my own."For nearly a decade, Shriver and Navratilova ruled women's doubles, winning 20 Grand Slam championships.