Navratilova

BaseballPadres: Agreed to terms with IF Luis Lopez.BasketballFort Wayne (CBA): Signed F Andre Foreman.CollegeL Franklin & Marshall: Named Steve O'Day women's soccer coach.Hofstra: F Stanley Martin left basketball team for personal reasons.Pittsburgh: Named Brian Williams and Vincent White assistant football coaches.FootballEagles: Signed LB Terry Crews. Released DT Keith Rucker.TennisU.S. Federation Cup: Named Martina Navratilova captain.Pub Date: 12/25/96

WIMBLEDON, England -- Martina Navratilova won't get her record-tying 20th Wimbledon title this year. When the mixed doubles crown is contested -- possibly today -- Navratilova will be on the sidelines, having lost yesterday's quarterfinal match with partner Jonathan Stark.Lindsay Davenport and Grant Connell, the No. 2 seeds, beat the defending champions and the No. 5 seeds, 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-2).There were no service breaks in the match, and Navratilova and Stark were up 5-0 in the first set tiebreaker.

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- It could have been a prizefight.In one corner, the winner of 168 career singles titles and wearing the black-and-white striped shorts, Martina Navratilova. And in this corner, returning to tennis for the first time in 27 months and wearing the white tennis dress, Monica Seles.But then Seles, the 21-year-old who had not played tennis in public since being stabbed in the back in Hamburg, Germany, April 30, 1993, walked onto the court, and just like that, everyone knew this was not going to be a fight.

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- One question, perhaps more than any other, is waiting for an answer as Monica Seles returns to professional tennis today.How will she play?She has not played a professional match since being stabbed April 30, 1993. And over the last 28 months she changed from a 19-year-old teen-ager into a 21-year-old woman. She has grown two inches to 5 feet 11 and has trimmed off the baby fat."You can practice a lot, which I have," Seles said. "But you can't prepare for the pressure of a real match.

WIMBLEDON, England -- The more Martina Navratilova keeps talking about her love of tennis, the more she is beginning to sound like Sugar Ray Leonard on the verge of a comeback.Yesterday, Navratilova, 38, claimed her 19th Wimbledon title by combining with Jonathan Stark to win the mixed doubles final over Gigi Fernandez and Cyril Suk, 6-4, 6-4.Then, in her post-match interview, she talked about how she rediscovered that it was her loose racket strings, not her age, that had her serving so badly at the end of her singles career.

Orioles television ratings are off substantially from this time last season, but that doesn't mean Marcellus Alexander, Channel 13's vice president and general manager, is worried.That's because the Orioles continue to do well against the competition, even if their ratings are down as much as 21 percent from this time last year."While the numbers are down, the Orioles still are a dominant force. We are very happy to have the Orioles," said Alexander.Through seven telecasts on WJZ -- 20 percent of the station's broadcast schedule -- the Orioles are averaging a 10.9 rating, nearly three ratings points lower than the 13.8 figure at this juncture last year.

NEW YORK -- Martina Navratilova couldn't stand still. She stood in the entrance to Madison Square Garden's court, the national anthem wafting through the air, and jumped up and down, up and down."

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.

Tennis is usually a little more predictable than politics, and since Pam Shriver takes nothing for granted when she plays tennis, she certainly isn't going to when it comes to the Women's Tennis Association Tour Players Association's race for president."

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.