Tennis Roundup : Navratilova and Graf Advance to Virginia Slims Final

Martina Navratilova rallied to beat a determined Pam Shriver, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4, Saturday for her 52nd consecutive victory and a berth in the final of the $1-million Virginia Slims championships before 17,128 fans at Madison Square Garden in New York.

The top-seeded Navratilova will meet second-seeded Steffi Graf of West Germany, who ousted No. 4-seeded Helena Sukova of Czechoslovakia, 7-6, 1-6, 6-1.

The winner of today’s match will collect $125,000, the runner-up $60,000.

Shriver played one of the best matches of her career, as she came close to repeating her upset of Navratilova in the quarterfinals of the 1982 U.S. Open.

“I thought it was over today,” Navratilova said of her streak, the fourth-longest in modern tennis. Navratilova has strings of 74 and 54 matches, and Chris Evert Lloyd won 56 in a row.

Navratilova was almost down two breaks in the decisive third set when, for the third straight day, a controversial point played a key role in a match.

“I’ve never felt so positive about a match in my life,” Shriver said. “I thought I was going to win it.”

She might have won, except for the controversial point that came after Navratilova had rallied from a love-40 deficit to pull to deuce in the fifth game of the third set.

On the next point, Navratilova hit a shot that struck the net. Thinking she had missed the point, giving Shriver the advantage point, Navratilova began to berate herself.

But the ball climbed over the net and dropped at Shriver’s side. Shriver raced to the ball, but she couldn’t lift it back over the net.

Shriver complained to umpire Judy Popkin and tournament referee Lee Jackson, claiming Navratilova’s vocal outburst interfered with her play. The ruling went against her, however.

“The only time Martina and I ever had a problem was five years ago in Australia, and she did the same thing. I didn’t win that point either, but once every five years isn’t bad,” said Shriver, who with Navratilova, form the world’s top doubles team.

Defending champion Matt Anger beat South African-born American Johan Kriek, 7-6, 7-6, to reach the final of the $375,000 Altech South African Open against Israel’s Amos Mansdorf.

Mansdorf defeated South Africa’s Eddie Edwards, 6-0, 7-5, in the other semifinal.

Top-seeded Dinky van Rensberg beat Rene Mentz, 6-3, 6-1, to win the all-South Africa women’s final.

Unseeded Scott Davis defeated Eliot Teltscher, 7-5, 6-4, to advance to the final of the $279,000 WCT Houston Shootout at Houston.

Slobodan Zivojinovic of Czechoslovakia, the only seeded player remaining in the singles draw, defeated Derrick Rostagno, 6-4, 6-4, in the other semifinal.

Unseeded Peter Fleming and second-seeded Jan Gunnarsson of Sweden advanced to today’s final of the men’s $50,000 Bergen Open at Bergen, Norway.

Fleming beat unseeded Martin Laurendeau of Canada, 6-2, 6-4, and Gunnarsson advanced on a walkover when fellow Swede Peter Carlsson was ill and had to default.