Tennis Roundup : Navratilova Survives 2 Tiebreakers

No. 1-seeded Martina Navratilova struggled through two tiebreakers to beat Sabrina Goles of Yugoslavia, 7-6, 7-6, Tuesday in the second round of the $150,000 Italian Open women’s tennis tournament.

Meanwhile, No. 2-seeded Steffi Graf of West Germany breezed to a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Petra Huber of Austria in her debut on the slow red clay courts at Rome.

Navratilova, the world’s top-ranked player, is used to coasting through her early matches in little more than 30 minutes. But, Tuesday, in her first match at the Foro Italico since 1975, she needed 1 hour 45 minutes to pull out a victory over the 21-year-old Goles, ranked No. 49 in the world.

In the end, it was Navratilova’s strong serve that carried her through the tiebreakers, 7-4, 7-3.

“She (Goles) played well, but it was more a matter of me playing badly,” Navratilova said. “I’ve been practicing on clay for a month but the court was very soft and she was hitting the ball so low, with a lot of slice, and I was having difficulty.

“I was up and down,” she said. “I couldn’t string it together. I was tentative. I couldn’t figure out whether to stay back or come in (to the net).

“If I play like I played today. I won’t get to play Steffi in the finals.”

Goles, who was playing Navratilova for the first time, said she had expected a tougher match.

“I like clay,” she said. “I changed the pace a lot and she (Navratilova) didn’t like that. But in the tiebreakers, she just served better.”

After a delay of 29 hours because of rain, the $615,000 Shearson Lehman Brothers Tournament of Champions got under way at New York’s West Side Tennis Club with four seeded players winning first-round matches.

No. 6 Martin Jaite of Argentina, No. 8 Jakob Hlasek of Switzerland, No. 11 Jay Berger and No. 15 Guy Forget of France advanced despite occasional drizzles and 40-degree weather.

Jaite defeated Leif Shiras, 6-4, 6-4; Hlasek won, 7-5, 0-1, when Lawson Duncan retired because of tendinitis in his right elbow; Berger stopped Al Parker, 6-4, 7-5, and Forget outlasted Roberto Arguello of Argentina, 6-7, 6-1, 6-3.