Tennis Roundup : Navratilova Breezes Past Lloyd, 6-2, 6-1

Martina Navratilova handed Chris Evert Lloyd the third worst beating in their 13-year series Sunday to win the Virginia Slims tournament at Dallas for the seventh time in eight years.

Navratilova won in 57 minutes, 6-2, 6-1. She had beaten Lloyd, 6-2, 6-0, in a 1984 tournament at Amelia Island, Fla., and also won, 6-2, 6-0, in a 1983 Virginia Slims tournament at New York.

“It looked easy but it wasn’t,” Navratilova said. “I played the match over in my head last night and I didn’t get to sleep until 1 a.m.”

Navratilova said she sensed Lloyd’s tentativeness at the start. “I felt Chris was nervous . . . and I didn’t feel threatened,” she said. “I didn’t think she could hurt me.”

She is now 36-32 against Lloyd and has won 14 of their last 15 indoor matches.

Navratilova, who recently passed the $10 million mark in winnings, earned $40,000 for her victory Sunday. Lloyd, who won the tournament in 1974, got $20,000.

Navratilova also clinched first place in the Virginia Slims point standings with a 140-point lead over Lloyd entering this week’s final event in New York City.

She broke Lloyd’s service three times in the first set and the rout was on in front of a full house of 10,000 spectators in Moody Coliseum.

Lloyd, 31, had to resort to her second serve 18 times as Navratilova came to the net for some acrobatic volleys and game winners. She never broke Navratilova’s service.

“She played her best and she’s hard to beat when she plays her best,” Lloyd said. “She had no unforced errors.”

Lloyd said her problems began early.

“My first serve let me down and it had been good all week,” she said.

Navratilova said she kept Lloyd off balance.

“I never let her get into her groove,” she said. “My serve would have been good today on any surface. I played the best I’ve played in three weeks.”

Ivan Lendl of Czechoslovakia, ranked No. 1 in the world, defeated Joakim Nystrom of Sweden, 6-2, 6-2, 6-4, to win the $60,000 first prize in the $385,000 Fila Trophy indoor tournament at Milan, Italy.

It was Lendl’s 21st consecutive win this year and his fourth in four matches against Nystrom. It was also the third tournament victory in a row for Lendl, who has now amassed nearly $9 million of prize money in his career.

Lendl, who lives in Greenwich, Conn., controlled the match, winning in 2 hours 15 minutes.

“I played well, I played better than Nystrom,” he said. “For the first time since the Masters (in January) I had a good timing.”

The Swede admitted that he was no threat to Lendl in Sunday’s final, watched by a sellout crowd of 4,000.

“It is very difficult to beat Lendl on fast courts. I should play more aggressively, but volleying from the net is not the kind of tennis I can play now,” he said.

Lendl served eight aces during the match while Nystrom had six, all of them in the third set.

Bjorn Borg, the retired Swedish tennis star, presented the trophy to the winner.