La Costa Tennis : Navratilova, Shriver Divided, Fall

For the past four years, it has been the cry heard ‘round the women’s tennis doubles circuit--”Break Up Navratilova and Shriver.”

And, for the past four years, it has been a cry muffled beneath a deluge of serves and volleys.

The pairing of Martina Navratilova and Pam Shriver has been the sport’s closest thing to perfection since . . . well, Martina Navratilova in singles. Put the world’s greatest female tennis player together with a tall and lanky power-server, enter them in any tournament and the general effect has resembled a steamroller running through sand castles.

Consider what the duo of Navratilova and Shriver has wrought:

--Eleven tournament victories during 1983.

--The completion of the first doubles Grand Slam in history during 1984.

--The last four U.S. Open doubles championships.

--The last two Wimbledon doubles championships.

--The long-term leasing of the title Women’s Doubles Team of the Year, which they have won four years running.

Break up Navratilova and Shriver?

Well, finally, somebody figured out a way. The directors of the $500,000 Chrysler Women’s Team Championship at La Costa Hotel and Spa did it--dissolving the partnership temporarily in the name of science, to see how Navratilova and Shriver would fare on their own with different doubles teammates.

The early results are in, and the experiment blew up in the lab.

Navratilova, playing alongside Candy Reynolds, managed to win just three games in a 6-2, 6-1 loss to Zina Garrison and Kathy Rinaldi in Friday’s first round of competition. And Shriver, taking on JoAnne Russell as a partner, was knocked off by the tandem of Kathy Jordan and Alycia Moulton, 6-2, 7-6.

Both halves of the finest women’s doubles team in existence today find themselves in the consolation bracket of this exhibition tournament. United they stand, divided they fall.

Meanwhile, back in the championship bracket, with an eventual first-place prize of $275,000 at stake, here are today’s semifinal pairings:

Garrison-Rinaldi against Hana Mandlikova and Rosalyn Fairbank, who defeated Barbara Potter and Billie Jean King, 7-5, 4-6, 6-2.

Jordan-Moulton against Wendy Turnbull and Betsy Nagelsen, who defeated Manuela Maleeva and Anne Smith, 6-3, 6-2.

It began as an intriguing concept--taking 16 of the world’s top women tennis players and creating eight doubles teams via a draft. The first eight seeded players selected their partners in inverse order of their current computer ranking, with No. 8 Potter choosing first, No. 3 Shriver sixth and No. 1 Navratilova last.

The first-round winners, of course, raved about the concept. But Navratilova and Shriver expressed some doubts.

Navratilova: “Since I lost, no, I don’t like it.”

Shriver: “My brain tells me it’s a great idea, but my heart tells me I’d love to be playing with someone I’ve played with for the last four years.”

Navratilova and Shriver, however, were not exactly strangers to their doubles partners Friday. Navratilova and Reynolds, in fact, won the 1982 Canadian Open. Shriver and Russell played together earlier this year in Baltimore.

But, at La Costa, neither team could salvage a first-round set.

Garrison and Rinaldi insisted they had planned no specific strategy for Navratilova and Reynolds, but the tone of their match demonstrated otherwise. Whenever possible, they kept the ball away from Navratilova and hit toward Reynolds.

“I knew it was going to be tough,” Reynolds said. “I knew a lot more balls were going to be coming my way. That’s the way it is with whomever she (Navratilova) plays with.”

Garrison and Rinaldi directed most of the action Reynolds’ way and most of the time, the point would wind up getting logged in the underdogs’ column. Match point was typical--Reynolds serving, rushing in and then hitting a volley into the net.

Navratilova, however, defended the play of her partner.

“Candy played some good points,” Navratilova said. “I missed some shots and had trouble serving. The key was us not being able to hold serve.”

Sure enough, Navratilova was uncommonly fallible Friday. She served four times during the match and held only once. Reynolds had the same percentage.