Navratilova Has Little Trouble Winning at Orlando

Martina Navratilova cruised past 15-year-old Katerina Maleeva of Bulgaria, 6-0, 6-1, Saturday to win her sixth straight Tournament of Champions at Orlando, Fla.

Navratilova, the world’s top-ranked player, had no trouble with the clay surface and lost only the second game of the match when Maleeva, ranked 33rd, held service with a love game.

Navratilova won her 25th and 26th straight sets after losing to Chris Evert Lloyd at Key Biscayne, Fla., earlier this year.

She said she has adapted to the slow clay surface that gave her trouble in the past.

“It’s comfortable for me now and it gives me a chance to do more with the ball than just serve and volley,” she said.

The victory gave Navratilova 104 professional titles, second only to Lloyd’s 135.

Top-seeded John McEnroe wiped out the upset hopes of giant-killer Mike Leach, 6-3, 6-3, in the semifinals of the $375,000 WCT-Atlanta tournament.

Second-seeded Kevin Curren came down with a stomach ailment and defaulted his semifinal match to unseeded Paul Annacone, and will face McEnroe in today’s final.

McEnroe, the three-time Wimbleton champion who has captured four of five tournaments this year, needed only 1 hour 17 minutes to dash the hopes of Leach, who upset seventh-seeded Stefan Edberg and third-seeded Pat Cash in earlier rounds.

Leach was leading, 3-2, and had McEnroe at double-break point before the world’s No. 1 player rallied to win four straight games and the opening set.

In the second set, McEnroe spurted ahead, 4-1, breaking the 26-year-old Leach’s serve in the fourth game and was never seriously threatened as he concluded the match with 17 service winners, including five aces.

Yannick Noah overcame Aaron Krickstein, 4-6, 6-0, 6-3, to reach today’s final against Jimmy Connors in the Bank of Oklahoma tournament at Tulsa, Okla.

Top-seeded Connors beat Gene Mayer, 7-5, 6-1.