Navratilova

WIMBLEDON, England -- Martina Navratilova moved within one victory of her 10th Wimbledon singles title today when she beat Gigi Fernandez, 6-4, 7-6 (8-6).Miss Navratilova, 37, who is playing in her 22nd and final Wimbledon singles, held off her friend and practice partner from Aspen, Colo.Navratilova scored the first eight points for a 2-0 lead and led 5-1 before Fernandez won three straight games. Navratilova then served out the set.Fernandez, a doubles specialist who was the lowest ranked player (No. 99)

Pam Shriver put on a charity ball last week at the Sheraton Inner Harbor Hotel, and just as the live-auction portion of the evening was winding down, Martina Navratilova popped up and offered to donate tennis lessons to the highest bidder. Her surprise gesture brought in an extra $15,000 for cystic fibrosis research. Sounds like a sweet ending to the evening. And it would have been, if celebrity baker Duff Goldman hadn't been cued at that very moment to make a grand, music-filled entrance on the stage to present Shriver with a cake.

HILTON HEAD, S.C. -- Second seed Martina Navratilova was ousted in straight sets, and a qualifier for the first time in a decade made the quarterfinals at the $550,000 Family Circle Magazine Cup yesterday.The top seed, Gabriela Sabatini of Argentina, led her third-round match against Amanda Coetzer of South Africa, 7-5, 5-3, when play was suspended because of darkness.Navratilova was ousted, 6-4, 6-2, by Natalia Zvereva of Belarus, who is seeded No. 10.

Pam Shriver's Mercantile Tennis Challenge has always been about raising money to help children's charities in her hometown, and for Baltimore tennis fans, that has always translated into seeing the world's top singles players. But on Dec. 6 at 1st Mariner Arena, Shriver is planning a different kind of tennis treat. Yes, there will be a singles match, but the star attraction will be Bob and Mike Bryan, the No. 1 doubles team in the world. "They're the team that rejuvenated men's doubles," Shriver said from her California home this week.

NEW YORK -- Martina Navratilova won't be the first retired athlete to segue into politics, but she's probably the first to run against her longtime doubles partner.The post at stake in this curious competition is the presidency of the WTA Tour Players Association, a position held the past three years by Pam Shriver, of Lutherville, Md.At an election to be held Sunday night, Navratilova, an advocate of challenging the tennis establishment, will attempt to block Shriver's re-election bid. But Navratilova, who is retiring at the close of 1994, could find herself running unchallenged if Shriver is not first re-elected to the WTA Tour board by the players.

NEW YORK -- Pam Shriver performed one of her last official acts as president of the Women's Tennis Association Tour Players Association last night, presenting the Player of the Year award to Steffi Graf.It was one of her final duties because, while Shriver was re-elected to the players association board of directors, she lost her bid for a fourth consecutive term as president, to Martina Navratilova.Navratilova also served as president in 1979 and 1980 and again in 1983. But this will be the first time since 1989, the year Chris Evert retired and served out her term, that a nonactive player will be the association's president.

WIMBLEDON, England -- Pam Shriver turned 30 yesterday but wasn't celebrating because she and Martina Navratilova lost in the Wimbledon doubles semifinals."

Tune in today and enjoy Martina Navratilova's going out in style (win or lose) in the Wimbledon women's final, and Germany and Switzerland facing Belgium and Spain, respectively, in the first two second-round games of World Cup Soccer.* "Wimbledon tennis women's final." (9 a.m.-conclusion, WMAR, Channel 2) -- Billie Jean King had worried that, due to the luck of the draw and the upset defeats of some major seeds, Ms. Navratilova had yet to be truly tested as she advanced through the Wimbledon tournament.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. -- The youth movement in tennis took a step backward yesterday when 38-year-old Jimmy Connors and 34-year-old Martina Navratilova announced that they will play TeamTennis in 1991.Navratilova first played World Team Tennis in 1976, the year Jennifer Capriati was born. Navratilova, though, said she had a ,, very good reason for deciding to play again next summer: "The money is there."Navratilova and Connors were introduced at a news conference at the Forum by TeamTennis chief Billie Jean King, who said the players received financial guarantees and multiyear contracts to play for unspecified teams.

CHICAGO -- It has always been easier to read Martina Navratilova than to play her.When she has struggled, it has so often been demonstrated by a glance toward her coach or friends, an effort to gather inspiration or encouragement, or perhaps just a nod of confirmation.But when she is clicking, really clicking as she was in her 6-1, 6-2 victory over Zina Garrison in the finals of the Virginia Slims of Chicago yesterday, her focus is straight ahead, her emotions in check, her game seamless.

Before the matches began last night at Pam Shriver's 20th anniversary Mercantile Tennis Challenge, there was a difference of opinion among the four former world No. 1 players assembled at 1st Mariner Arena on how the games would be played. "For fun," said the Martinas, Navratilova and Hingis, who exhibited little humor in the set won by Hingis, 8-4. "Is there such a thing as an exhibition with John McEnroe?" said Jim Courier, who endured through McEnroe's antics in an 8-6 victory. "There is such a thing," McEnroe said.

When Martina Navratilova takes the court tonight in Pam Shriver's Mercantile Tennis Challenge at 1st Mariner Arena, tennis fans will see a woman who refuses to be limited by either age or society. "What I'm doing isn't rare," she said. "It has never been done before." She isn't talking about playing doubles with John McEnroe here, even though it is the first time in professional, charity or exhibition matches that has occurred. She is talking about being a vibrant, relevant competitor at age 49 - and next season at age 50. "I plan to play in my 50th year," she said.

The Mercantile Tennis Challenge is going retro this year, as originator Pam Shriver makes plans to celebrate the 20th annual event. At least three former world No. 1 tennis stars and International Tennis Hall of Famers - John McEnroe, Jim Courier and Martina Navratilova - have already agreed to take part Nov. 14 at 1st Mariner Arena. This will be the first time since 2000 that the challenge has been played in November, and Shriver voiced some relief about moving away from a December date, saying November provides "some comfort" as bad weather is less likely and there are fewer Christmas parties to contend with.

WIMBLEDON, England - They were like a couple of aging troubadours, back on the big stage for one last show, and they were so good yesterday it turned a wet opening day at Wimbledon into an afternoon dripping with nostalgia and sunny memories. First, Martina Navratilova, 47 and absent from the singles draw at Wimbledon for 10 years, routed Colom bian Catalina Castano, 6-0, 6-1, before holding yet another of her interminably long but always entertaining news conferences. Then, Goran Ivanisevic, 32, won his first grass court match since he came out of nowhere, unseeded, to win the 2001 Wimbledon for his first and only Grand Slam title.

PARIS - History was made yesterday at the French Open, not by a left-handed legend but by two Frenchmen who ventured well into extra time. Martina Navratilova, 47, was trying to become the oldest female player to win a singles match at a Grand Slam in the Open era. Her effort against Gisela Dulko of Argentina fell far short, with Dulko beating Navratilova, 6-1, 6-3, in just over an hour. Short is not the word to describe the combined effort by Fabrice Santoro and Arnaud Clement. Their first-round match - spread over two days - lasted 6 hours, 33 minutes - the longest in the Open era. Santoro saved two match points, eventually winning, 6-4, 6-3, 6-7 (5)

NEW YORK - In 2001, Lleyton Hewitt was a brash 20-year-old, willing to take chances. The result was he won his first Grand Slam tournament at the U.S. Open and ended the year as the No. 1 men's player in the world. Yesterday, he again took his share of chances - hauling off with a big backhand up the line while facing break point on his own serve - and moved into the third round with a 5-7, 6-2, 6-2, 6-4 victory over Hyung-Taik Lee. "I still feel like I've got all the weapons and all the strengths that I had back then," said Hewitt, the No. 6 seed.

Two operations and more than a year later, Pam Shriver and Martina Navratilova showed they had not lost their touch in doubles, teaming up to stop Californians Angelica Gavaldon and Marianne Werdel, 6-1, 6-2, yesterday in the Virginia Slims of Chicago tournament.One of the most successful doubles teams ever in women's tennis, the two had been apart for more than a year for various reasons, including Shriver's recent shoulder surgery and Navratilova's knee operation.Today, their reunion will cross over to the singles competition, where top seed Navratilova will face Shriver in a second-round match.

WIMBLEDON, England - Twenty-seven years after she won her first Wimbledon title, Martina Navratilova, 46, won her record-tying 20th All England Club crown by taking the mixed doubles final with partner Leander Paes of India yesterday. They did it the hard way, winning two matches with only about an hour's rest between. First, Navratilova and Paes won over Leos Friedl and Liezel Huber, 7-5, 6-4, then trumped Andy Ram of Israel and Anastassia Rodionova of Russia, 6-3, 6-3. With this championship, Navratilova ties Billie Jean King, who also won 20 Wimbledon titles.