Tennis Roundup : Navratilova Comes Through After Lloyd Loses

Martina Navratilova came to the rescue Friday after Chris Evert Lloyd suffered her first defeat in 30 Federation Cup matches.

Lloyd, thrown off her game by tendinitis in her left knee, was upset by Sandra Cecchini, ranked 64th in the world, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, in a quarterfinal match against Italy at Prague, Czechoslovakia.

This put the burden on Navratilova to win in both singles and doubles, and she came through to carry the United States to a 2-1 victory.

Navratilova, once again besieged by cheers from a capacity crowd in her native country, defeated Raffaella Reggi, 6-2, 6-4, then teamed with Pam Shriver for a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Reggi and Laura Garrone.

At the end of her 70-minute singles match, two spectators leaped out of the stands to present her with flowers.

On the next-to-last point in doubles, a smash by Navratilova, she received such an extended burst of applause that, as it subsided, Reggi good-naturedly began waving her arms and the crowd responded with another round of cheers.

For Lloyd, it was the first loss after 29 successive singles victories in Federation Cup competition and, including doubles, she is 43-2 overall.

The 31-year-old American could blame only herself as she committed five double faults and 67 unforced errors. In contrast, the 21-year-old Cecchini was charged with 30 unforced errors.

Lloyd once again wrapped her left knee in a big, blue bandage, and indicated later she had played too cautiously against Cecchini.

“I didn’t feel any pain, but I think I’m probably compensating a little on some of my shots. But she played very, very well,” Lloyd said. “The next two days I’m going to go all out because I don’t like playing tentative.”

Meanwhile, West Germany, seeded No. 3, edged No. 5 Bulgaria, 2-1, to earn a date against No. 1 United States in today’s semifinals. Bettina Bunge, replacing the injured Steffi Graf in singles, overcame Katerina Maleeva, 2-6, 6-3, 6-3, but Manuela Maleeva brought Bulgaria even with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Claudia Kohde-Kilsch.

Bunge and Kohde-Kilsch then won the deciding point by beating the Maleeva sisters, 6-4, 6-2.

Czechoslovakia and Argentina gained semifinal berths on Thursday.

French Open finalist Mikael Pernfors of Sweden was upset, 6-4, 6-2, by Miloslav Mecir of Czechoslovakia in the quarterfinals of the $125,000 Swedish Open at Bastad.

Mecir set up a semifinal meeting with top-seeded Mats Wilander of Sweden, who defeated West German Eric Jelen, 6-0, 6-4.

Second-seeded Stefan Edberg of Sweden beat countryman Ulf Stenlund, 6-0, 0-6, 6-2, and faces Spain’s Emilio Sanchez, who beat Italy’s Paolo Cane 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.

Horacio de la Pena of Argentina overcame 90-degree heat at Brookline, Mass., to upset second-seeded Thierry Tulasne, 2-6, 6-2, 6-4, in the quarterfinals of the $279,000 U.S. Pro Championships.

Top-seeded Andres Gomez of Ecuador defeated eighth-seeded Aaron Krickstein, 6-3, 6-4, in the other afternoon match, while third-seeded Martin Jaite of Argentina beat fifth-seeded Jimmy Arias, 7-5, 6-2, in the first of two evening matches.

In the other, sixth-seeded Kent Carlsson of Sweden defeated fourth-seeded Guillermo Vilas of Argentina, 6-1, 6-3.

Defending champion Brad Gilbert, the only seeded player left in the men’s draw, defeated Sammy Giammalva, 6-3, 6-4, to advance to the semifinals of a $125,000 tournament at Livingston, N.J.

Earlier, Christo van Rensburg upset fifth-seeded Ramesh Krishnan of India, 6-4, 6-1, and Mike Leach surprised seventh-seeded Greg Holmes, 4-6, 7-6, 6-4.

In women’s play, top-seeded Betsy Nagelsen rallied to defeat Christine O’Reilly, 6-3, 7-5, and second-seeded Kathy Horvath beat Robin Curcur, 6-4, 6-3, to move into the semifinals with Michelle Torres and Grace Kim.