Shriver Defeats Sabatini Despite Injuring an Ankle

Only someone like Pam Shriver could, smiling, delight in revenge against 16-year-old Gabriela Sabatini, tennis’ current heartthrob. And only Pam Shriver could come back from being down, 5-3, in the first set, slip and strain a tendon above her ankle, then go on to beat the Argentine, 7-5, 6-2.

Score one for retribution. It had been one year this week that Sabatini won in straight sets for her second victory in two matches against Shriver. An 0-2 record doesn’t sit well with a 24-year-old who turned pro when Sabatini was in third grade.

Friday’s quarterfinal match in the $250,000 Virginia Slims of Los Angeles tournament at Manhattan Country Club began innocently enough. Both players held serve until the fifth game, when, with the flick of a backhand passing shot, Sabatini went ahead, 3-2.

Each player held serve again until the eighth game. With Sabatini serving weakly, Shriver continued to come to the net after her second serve. Shriver accumulated five break points but could not get the break.

Shriver couldn’t break Sabatini’s serve but almost broke her own ankle. On game point, Sabatini hit a short approach shot that Shriver had to hustle to reach. Shriver managed a cross-court volley that went wide.

As Shriver was skidding into the net on the shot, her right leg buckled under and she sprawled on the court. Meanwhile, Sabatini, who had won the game to go up, 5-3, was walking off the court, apparently not seeing Shriver lying in a heap at the net.

Shriver got up, tested the ankle, then limped to the sideline. After conferring with a trainer, Shriver walked back onto the court. Then she walked over Sabatini, winning the next seven games.

“It’s happened to me once before,” Shriver said of her injury. “I think it’s probably all right.”

Shriver broke serve twice to win the second set easily.

“It was kind of a big match,” Shriver said, smiling at the memory of her losses to Sabatini. “Last year at Mahwah (New Jersey), I had a bad attitude in the match. I was up two service breaks in the first set and serving at 40-0. I simply frittered the match away.”

Sabatini won that match, 7-5, 6-4. Sabatini also won a weird, rain-delayed match last year at Hilton Head Island, S.C. In that one, Shriver had a 7-5, 4-3 lead when a heavy rain caused the match to be delayed. It rained the next day, delaying the match again. Finally, 45 hours after it began, Sabatini won, 5-7, 7-5, 6-4.

The Twin Towers of women’s tennis, 6-2 Helena Sukova of Czechoslovakia and 6-0 1/2 Claudia Kohde-Kilsch of West Germany, slugged it out in another quarterfinal match. Sukova beat her doubles partner, 6-3, 7-5, to advance to today’s semifinals.

Kohde-Kilsch, the defending champion here, never seemed to get her rhythm in the match. She and Sukova are both strong serve-and-volley players, but Sukova is the more unpredictable.

“You think you’re hitting a very long ground stroke, then she comes in on it,” Kohde-Kilsch said. “I missed some chances to attack her backhand, and the next thing you know, she’s at the net. At the net, she was unbelievable. I don’t think she missed.”

Both players are deceptively quick and run down every ball. Once Sukova established herself at the net, Kohde-Kilsch had trouble getting her to budge. With Sukova’s impressive reach, it’s difficult to get a lob over her head.

Kohde-Kilsch is no slouch at the net, either. She was fending off Sukova’s passing shots, a job made easier by Sukova’s faltering in that department as the match progressed.

“I couldn’t pass her,” Sukova said. “I think it was because her approach shot is so good and so low. Both of us didn’t play our best.”

Kohde-Kilsch, 22, may be the least-known No. 5 player in the world. All she does is quietly win. She has earned $114,306 so far this year.

Living in the shadow of fellow West German sensations Boris Becker and Steffi Graf does not rankle Kohde-Kilsch, who seems to approach life with a shrug and a smile.

“I think in the last year I have gotten more publicity,” she said. “But more outside Germany. I went to one tournament that Steffi was also in. She pulled out at the last minute. There were about nine or 10 German reporters there to cover her. So they had to stay to talk to me, instead.”

Martina Navratilova defeated Zina Garrison, 6-4, 6-4, in the other afternoon match.

In the evening match, Chris Evert Lloyd lost one set, then got angry and went on to defeat Manuela Maleeva, 3-6, 6-0, 6-0.

Lloyd was irate over what she thought was a netcord serve by Maleeva at set point in the first set. Lloyd lost the point and the set, and argued with the chair umpire.

“I never question anything,” Lloyd said. “But the netcord (sound) almost broke my eardrums. Yes, I was angry.”

Lloyd stormed through the next two sets, allowing Maleeva only 12 points in the next 12 games.

Lloyd, seeded No. 2, will meet Shriver at 7 p.m. tonight. Top-seeded Navratilova will play Sukova at 1 p.m.