International Players Championships : Graf Shows Why She Is No. 1, Defeats Evert

Steffi Graf reasserted her right to the No. 1 ranking Saturday with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Chris Evert in the women’s final of the International Players Championships.

Graf won $112,500 of the $2.1-million purse. Evert earned $56,250.

The top-seeded West German has now won every set in her seven matches since losing to Gabriela Sabatini of Argentina in the final of a Virginia Slims tournament at Boca Raton, Fla., two weeks ago.

“This match was very important,” Graf said. “It meant a lot. It was very important, especially after the last tournament, which I lost. It was important to come in and do well for myself, just to get my confidence back.”

Evert, seeded second, said Graf regained her No. 1 form.

“In that match with Sabatini, she was pretty wild,” Evert said. “She wasn’t the same player she was today.”

Saturday’s match took 1 hour 40 minutes and was much more competitive than last year’s final, in which Graf completed a 6-1, 6-2 wipeout of Evert in less than an hour.

“I’m not devastated like I was last year when I got blown off the court,” said Evert, who defeated Graf in the final of the 1986 tournament.

Graf’s victory Saturday was her sixth straight against Evert and tied their rivalry at six wins apiece.

“I kept hitting to her backhand and she kept slicing lower and lower,” Evert said. “They were barely skipping over the net. I thought her backhand was better than her forehand. She made very few winners off her forehand, which was unusual.”

Graf had only 5 forehand winners and committed 17 unforced errors.

Today, top-seeded Mats Wilander will play second-seeded Jimmy Connors in the men’s final.

Connors, 35, is looking for his first victory since 1984, and he has not beaten the 23-year-old Swede in four career meetings.