Lynda Carter Tennis Challenge : Road Show Continues for Navratilova, Lloyd

They come to watch Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert Lloyd with the knowledge that the very best days of the on-going rivalry are long past.

That doesn’t matter, though. People seem to think, with good reason, there may not be too many more days where they can watch Lloyd try to hit passing shots by Navratilova.

Step right up, here are the top two women tennis players in the world, maybe of all time. Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert Lloyd. But there is one thought that usually goes unsaid: See them while you still can.

Taking note of that unspoken sentiment, Navratilova, 30, and Lloyd, who turns 32 in two weeks, embarked on a four-city, six-day tour of the West. Their second-to-last stop came Sunday afternoon in the final of the Lynda Carter/Maybelline Tennis Challenge here at Mission Hills Country Club.

Navratilova, who has lost just one set to Lloyd during this tour, won, 6-4, 6-2, in a rain-delayed match.

“I wouldn’t call it barnstorming,” Navratilova said of the tour which finishes today in Sacramento. “It’s hard to fit 6,000 people in a barn.”

Although the Navratilova-Lloyd road show is much shorter than John McEnroe’s previous swings through the country, it does have the aim of bringing the game to areas that haven’t been exposed to a great deal of professional tennis.

Lloyd, as always, was honest about the other important aspect of these exhibitions. Money.

“These events don’t count in the rankings,” she said. “They don’t count in our head-to-head record. . . . It’s very lucrative for both of us.”

Put the emphasis on very . Navratilova, who played two matches, received $110,000 for the victory. Lloyd also played twice and earned $90,000 for second place.

“It’s probably not great for Martina,” Lloyd said. “But I need to play these matches because of the time I missed. We’re both winding down in our careers. It’s sort of a last hurrah.”

After the U.S. Open, Lloyd missed almost three months from the tour because of a knee injury. She said the knee has held up this week despite the cool, rainy weather at Rancho Mirage.

During the third-place match between Stephanie Rehe and Carling Bassett, the skies grew cloudy again. When Lloyd and Navratilova took the court at 2 p.m., it was only a matter of time before it started raining.

Both players held serve in the first two games. At 1-1, with Lloyd serving at deuce, Navratilova hit a lob which was called out. She thought otherwise.

“I thought green was good,” Navratilova yelled.

Then the rain stopped the match for an hour and a half.

When play resumed, Navratilova and Lloyd stayed even until 4-4. In the ninth game, Navratilova broke Lloyd at 15 and held her serve, winning the set with an ace.

Neither could hold serve at the beginning of the second set. It doesn’t happen often, but Navratilova was broken twice in a row. Lloyd, though, failed to take advantage as she was broken four times.

Tennis Notes The announced attendance for the final was 3,822. But after the rain delay, the crowd looked more like 1,500. . . . In the semifinals, Chris Evert Lloyd beat Carling Bassett, 6-4, 6-3, and Martina Navratilova defeated Stephanie Rehe, 6-3, 6-1. In the shortened third-place match, Rehe beat Bassett, 8-2. Rehe had problems serving in her match against Navratilova, winning her serve once.