Tennis Roundup : ‘Relaxed’ Navratilova Defeats Jo Durie

Martina Navratilova took a giant stride today toward her third title of the year with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Britain’s Jo Durie in the third round of a Virginia Slims event in Edgbaston, England.

In a match lasting 45 minutes, the top-seeded Navratilova gave up only six points on her serve.

“I’m much more relaxed than I have been in a long, long time. I’ve lost four games in two matches, so I don’t know how much better I can get,” Navratilova said.

By putting more than 70% of her first serves into play, Navratilova gave Durie little chance of gaining a foothold in the match.

“I really took my time on the serve and thought about what I could do with it, and got into a nice rhythm from the start and stayed with it,” Navratilova said.

All her efforts are being channeled toward Wimbledon and regaining the title she surrendered last year to Steffi Graf.

Meanwhile, Ivan Lendl of Czechoslovakia and Mats Wilander of Sweden, with 13 Grand Slam tournament titles between them but not a single Wimbledon championship, continued their preparation for the grass-court event today by reaching the quarterfinals of the $380,000 Queens Club championships in London.

Lendl, the top seed, made short work of West Germany’s Eric Jelen 6-1, 6-3 while No. 3 seed Wilander defeated American Paul Chamberlin, ranked 90th in the world.

Lendl, upset in the fourth round at last week’s clay-court French Open, looked sharp and confident on the grass as he pushed Jelen back with big serves and deep, powerful ground strokes.

Wally Masur, the 16th seed from Australia who last year upset John McEnroe in the second round at Wimbledon, was defeated by British wild card Chris Bailey, 7-6, 6-4.

And in Bologna, Italy, Diego Perez of Uruguay upset third-seeded Horst Skoff of Austria 7-5, 6-4 in today’s second-round action at the Bologna tennis tournament.