Reggi Beats Minter in Slims Final, 6-0, 6-4

Raffaella Reggi has been having a good time in San Diego. But she hasn’t been feeling very confident about her tennis game.

During the San Diego Virginia Slims tournament this week, Reggi, who is ranked 21st in the world, has proclaimed the city and the tournament “fantastic.”

She hasn’t had much praise for her own game, however. And “fantastic” is not a word she would choose to describe her serve. So she spent some time this week trying to squeeze in extra practice among her matches and her 12 hours of sleep and the pasta dinners she cooks for herself.

Though she insisted all week that she wasn’t playing well enough to win the tournament, third-seeded Reggi, 21, defeated Anne Minter, 24, of Australia, 6-0, 6-4. This was the first victory of the year for Reggi, Italy’s top female player, who won the European Open in 1986.

“Maybe every day I should say I can’t win,” Reggi said after the match, carrying around an oversized check for $15,000, the first-place prize.

Minter, an unseeded player from Melbourne, beat seventh-seeded Terry Phelps and top-seeded Lori McNeil on her way to Sunday’s match. She surprised a lot of people by reaching the final.

“I suppose I’m a bit surprised,” she said. “But more pleased, really.”

Minter, who lost to Reggi in the French Open, said she is playing some of the best tennis of her career. And despite losing the first set of the one-hour, eight-minute match, 6-0, she played well again Sunday.

“I’m a bit of a slow starter,” she said. “And today it was combined with a few nerves.”

In the second game of the first set, the longest of the match, Minter was up, 40-0. But she lost the game after four deuces.

“I just wasn’t hitting my strokes like I was yesterday,” she said. “I was tentative.”

After winning the first set, Reggi fell behind, 2-1, on unforced errors.

“After six-love, you have to have double concentration,” she said. “I slept a little bit.”

On Sunday, Reggi, who defeated eighth-seeded Nathalie Tauziat to get to the final, served well. She readily concedes that her serve is the weakest part of her game.

“From the top to the bottom I need to learn it,” she had said after defeating Isabelle Demongeot in the quarterfinals.

Sunday, despite double-faulting twice in the second set, Reggi managed to get her first serve in most of the time.

“Hey, if I can win a tournament with that kind of a serve, what can I say? I’m more than happy,” she said.

Both Minter and Reggi will play in the Los Angeles Virginia Slims tournament, which opens today at the Manhattan Country Club in Manhattan Beach. On Tuesday, Minter will face Anne Henrickson, and Reggi, who is seeded 14th, will face Laura Gildemeister.

Before leaving San Diego, Reggi planned to celebrate her victory with one strawberry daiquiri. But just one.

“Hey,” she shrugged. “You know, I don’t want to overdo it.”

The seventh-seeded doubles team of Catherine Suire of France and Jana Novotna of Czechoslovakia won the tournament’s doubles title. They defeated the fourth-seeded team of Elis Burgin, from Baltimore, and Sharon Walsh-Pete, from Albuquerque, N.M., 6-3, 6-4.