Tennis Roundup : Navratilova, Shaky Early, Recovers to Beat Rehe

Top-seeded Martina Navratilova settled down quickly after dropping the first two games of her first-round match and beat Stephanie Rehe, 6-3, 6-2, Tuesday night in the $250,000 Virginia Slims of California at Oakland.

“I was ahead, 40-15, in the first game, then hit a bad volley and a bad forehand. I was upset, not because I lost the game but by how I lost it,” Navratilova said.

Navratilova lost a total of only four points in winning the last five games of the first set against Rehe.

Defending champion Zina Garrison, seeded fourth, opened play in the tournament with a strong serve and a strong showing, beating Heather Ludloff, 6-4, 6-2.

Making life difficult for himself with some sloppy and erratic play, Boris Becker survived a late lapse before defeating Guy Forget of France in the opening round of a Grand Prix tournament at Milan, Italy.

Becker, the defending champion, lagged 0-30 at 4-4 in the final set against Forget after losing six points in a row to the 23-year-old French left-hander. But he then won eight straight points, capped with an ace, to move into the second round of the $500,000 event, 6-4, 1-6, 6-4.

Unseeded Robert Seguso knocked off 13th seed Kelly Everndon of Australia in the second round of the Volvo Tennis-U.S. Indoor Championships, 6-3, 5-7, 7-6, in a match twice delayed by power failures at Memphis, Tenn.

Third-seeded David Pate had little trouble eliminating South African Gary Muller, 6-3, 6-2; fourth-seeded Eliot Teltscher beat Sammy Giammalva, 6-4, 6-4, and 15th-seeded Johan Kriek turned back Mel Purcell, 6-7, 6-1, 6-2.