PAINTY FINISH : Evert Beats Sabatini to Win Tennis Final Marred by Vandal

The writers’ strike ended just in time for the Virginia Slims of Los Angeles at Manhattan Beach. Hey, they needed yet another surprise ending for this tournament.

Two years ago, it was the miraculous return of Martina Navratilova’s lost dog. In 1987, Steffi Graf broke the Chris Evert-Navratilova stranglehold on No. 1. And now, on Sunday, there was an even stranger twist.

Match point turned to match paint.

As Gabriela Sabatini stood on the baseline preparing to serve to Chris Evert--on Evert’s match point--objects came hurling toward Sabatini from the southwest entrance of the west grandstand at the Manhattan Country Club.

The objects--believed to be light bulbs injected with yellow paint--hit the ground about two feet from Sabatini, just inside the baseline.

After a 27-minute delay and four points later, the top-seeded Evert defeated Sabatini, 2-6, 6-1, 6-1, to win in front of 5,806.

That, somehow, almost got lost in the crazy shuffle.

First, the perpetrator was believed to be a youngster. Several fans near the southwest entrance thought they saw a youth running from the scene. However, security guards were later saying the suspect was an older man, about 6 feet 4 inches, 250 pounds, who was wearing plaid shorts. He escaped from the club and ran across a soccer field. Authorities, however, did get the license plate number, according to Jerry Diamond, the tournament promoter.

“I don’t think that it was any attempt to make a protest,” Diamond said. “I think we ran into one of our local Manhattan Beach delinquents who has nothing else to brag about in his life. . . . I guess it’s been too hot throughout most of the world this summer.”

Evert, in all her years on the tour, had never been involved in something quite like Sunday’s occurrence. Once, Evert said, a fight broke out in the stands when she was playing Navratilova at the U.S. Open. That incident stopped play for about 15 to 20 minutes.

“I was leading and Martina came back and beat me,” Evert said, chuckling. “Something like this you hear that goes on in Davis Cup. It was shocking. You don’t expect those things to happen. I didn’t even know what it was on the court. I had no idea it was paint.

“I sort of was worried if they didn’t get it up off the court or if the court was left sticky, the match would be postponed. You don’t like hanging around for a few hours. You certainly want to get it over.”

Said Sabatini: “I wasn’t scared. It was just something that happened. It was nothing . . . somebody crazy that’s all.”

The match already had taken on an odd quality with some strange momentum switches. At the start, Sabatini showed no signs of fatigue from her three-set marathon semifinal match against Zina Garrison Saturday night. She took a 4-0 lead, breaking Evert’s service twice.

Finally, Evert won her first game when she managed to hold serve to make it 4-1. Then, after each held their serve, Sabatini tried to stop Evert from cutting the lead to 5-3 in a lengthy battle in the eighth game.

Once again, Sabatini had problems winning the big points. Against Garrison, she needed seven match points before advancing to the championship. On Sunday, Sabatini squandered four set points before winning it on the fifth. Evert chased down a tough Sabatini lob and netted a forehand.

That set, coupled with the Garrison match, seemed to take everything out of Sabatini. The same thing happened to her in a tournament last April. Sabatini defeated top-ranked Steffi Graf in a long and emotional match and had little left against Martina Navratilova in the final.

This time the legs grew weary early, only holding her up through one set. After losing the opening set, Evert won 12 of the final 14 games.

“I had a little tightness in my legs and a little pain from last night,” said Sabatini, 18, who was seeded third. “Maybe if I was in better shape, I could have won the match.”

At 33, Evert probably never thought she’d be outlasting the kids in long, three-set matches. Yet, there she was, doing it once again. In all, Evert has won this tournament five times.

This one came at a good time. She hadn’t won an event since last spring, despite having a good year that included advancing to the Australian Open final and the Wimbledon semifinals. Manhattan Beach was also Evert’s first tournament since her marriage last month to Andy Mills, a former Olympic skier.

Evert said the difficulty Sabatini had in winning the first set worked to her advantage.

“I think that 5-2 game was a pretty long game,” she said. “I went out there being not really used to her game. She’s the only one who plays like that. We don’t have any other Gabriela Sabatini’s on the tour to warm up against. And I was not used to her style, the topspin was giving me problems. She really played smart in the first set and I could only get better after that first set.

“I sensed that she was running out of steam. I think that match last night, I’m glad it was she that played Zina, and not me. Because I know it feels to play a late-night match the night before and come back the next day. I’m sure she was at a bit of a disadvantage at that.”

Sabatini, obviously, found herself at even more of a disadvantage after the paint incident. She was facing double match point when the paint came splattering down toward her. However, despite the mess, the paint didn’t get on Sabatini.

After the delay, Sabatini somehow averted the first two match points, pulling to deuce. That, considering the circumstances, was noble. Evert, however, wins many of her matches by forcing errors. And Sabatini sliced a forehand and a backhand into the net on the final two points.

Finally, after everything, match point was just match point.

Tennis Notes

For the victory, Chris Evert received $60,000, and Gabriela Sabatini earned $24,000. The doubles championship went to the unseeded team of Patty Fendick and Jill Hetherington as they defeated Robin White and Gigi Fernandez, 7-6, 5-7, 6-4. . . . Apparently there was no report of the paint throwing incident made to the local police department, according to the Manhattan Beach police department.