Tennis Roundup : Navratilova and Reggi Reach Eastbourne Final

Martina Navratilova won her ninth match in nine days, defeating Ros Fairbank Friday to reach the final of the women’s grass-court tennis championships at Eastbourne, England.

In the other semifinal, 14th-seeded Raffaella Reggi beat Gigi Fernandez, 6-4, 6-2.

Navratilova won easily, 6-3, 6-2, unlike last year at Wimbledon when she trailed Fairbank, 5-2, in the final set of their quarterfinal match before prevailing.

Navratilova, 32, admitted that she had last year’s Wimbledon match in mind. “I wanted to avenge myself a bit--even though I won last year it was pretty dicey,” she said.

Fairbank held her serve only once in the first set and won only three points in the first three games of the second set.

Navratilova said she is happy with her pre-Wimbledon program, although the many matches have taken a toll.

“It’s pretty grinding emotionally, but it will stand me in good stead at Wimbledon (starting Monday),” she said, adding that she was disappointed at not being able to face Chris Evert, who withdrew because of an ear infection, in the final today.

“I’d love to have played Chris, but I’m sure we’ll play again before she retires,” Navratilova said.

Reggi, a clay-court specialist, hit some excellent volleys to overcome the erratic Fernandez.

Boris Becker of West Germany outlasted Dan Goldie, 6-4, 7-6 (7-2), to advance to the final of a grass-court tournament at Wirral, England.

Becker, a two-time Wimbledon champion, will play for the title today against Peter Lundgren of Sweden, who defeated Carl-Uwe Steeb of West Germany, 7-6 (7-2), 6-3.

Becker won the first set by breaking Goldie’s serve in the 10th game. The West German got a another service break to go up, 5-3, in the second set, but Goldie broke back when Becker double-faulted and then netted a forehand.

In the tiebreaker, it was Goldie’s turn to miss his forehand. He hit one long and one into the net as Becker won, 7-2.

The semifinal had its lighter moments.

The West German, whose service had not been up to its usual standards in his quarterfinal match, served three aces in a row to take a 40-0 lead in the fifth game of the second set.

Goldie sat down in mock defeat, commenting: “The papers said you were serving badly.”

Becker said the match was his best yet.

“Until 6-4, 5-3, I was playing very well, but I then played two or three bad shots,” he said. “I was hoping I would be able to play four matches and hopefully tomorrow I will make it four wins out of four. Things couldn’t have been better for me so far.”

Nick Brown of Britain, ranked 467th in the world, defeated Richard Matuszewski, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3, in the semifinals of the Bristol Grand Prix men’s grass-court tournament at Bristol, England.

In today’s final, Brown will play Eric Jelen of West Germany, who blew two match points before winning a marathon from Michiel Schapers of the Netherlands, 3-6, 6-3, 13-11.

Matuszewski, seeded second in the tournament and ranked No. 61, won the second set with a service break in the 10th game but was not able to keep pace with the big serve of Brown.

Ivan Lendl of Czechoslovakia was upset by Sweden’s Jonas Svensson in a round-robin grass-court tournament at Wentworth, England, but the world’s top-ranked player said he wasn’t worried about Wimbledon.

“I am really pleased with the way everything has gone in the past two weeks,” Lendl said after Svensson won, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4.

Svensson’s victory moved Kevin Curren into the final of the round-robin event because the American had the better record in sets. Curren will face Sweden’s Mats Wilander, who advanced by defeating Jakob Hlasek of Switzerland, 7-6 (7-5), 6-3.

Wilander blew four set points, at 5-3 in the first set, against Hlasek before winning the tiebreaker.

Claudio Mezzadri of Switzerland and Juan Aguilera of Spain, both unseeded, advanced to the semifinals of a clay-court tournament at Bari, Italy.

Mezzadri defeated seventh-seeded Franco Davin of Argentina, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3. Aguilera beat Pedro Rebolledo of Chile, 6-4, 6-2.