Tennis Roundup : Navratilova Mixes Serve and Wins

Martina Navratilova failed to hold serve in five consecutive games but beat Nana Miyagi of Japan, 6-2, 3-6, 6-2, Friday in the quarterfinals of the Canadian Women’s Open in Toronto.

Navratilova, seeded second for the U.S. Open, failed to hold serve in four games in the second set and again in the first game of the final set.

“I had to figure out a way to hold my serve,” she said. “Otherwise, I was going to lose the match. So I had to mix it up.”

“She’s a good player and if you don’t play well, she’ll give you fits,” Navratilova said of Miyagi, a qualifier ranked 142nd, who had upset sixth-seeded Natali Zvereva and 12th-seeded Radka Zrubakova.

Navratilova will meet unseeded Australian Anne Minter. Minter, buoyed by the confidence instilled by her upset of third-seeded Chris Evert earlier in the week, helped her beat West German Sylvia Hanika, 6-2, 6-3.

In another match, French Open champion Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, the No. 4 seeded player, beat 10th-seeded Nathalie Tauziat of France, 6-3, 6-2, and advanced to today’s semifinals. She’ll play No. 2 seeded Gabriela Sabatini of Argentina, who beat fifth-seeded Jana Novotna of Czechoslovakia, 6-1, 3-6, 6-0.

Although she has lost to Sabatini all seven times they have played, Sanchez is looking forward to the match.

“She has topspin,” Sanchez said. “Her game is good for me. It’s not always easy with a player who plays topspin, but I’d rather play that than someone who always comes to the net.”

Top-seeded Ivan Lendl defeated unseeded Jonas Svensson of Sweden, 6-2, 2-6, 6-1, to reach the semifinals of the Hamlet Challenge Cup at Jericho, N.Y.

Ranked No. 1, Lendl rallied after a spotty early performance to win the last six games.

“I got careless in the second set. I thought I’d win easy, without having to hit hard,” said the 29-year-old Lendl, the No. 1 seeded player for the U.S. Open, which begins Monday. “Svensson has the kind of game that can get you in trouble if you’re not sharp.”

Svensson, an upset winner over Lendl at the French Open in 1988, used steady groundstrokes and drop shots to challenge Lendl. He appeared to have more than an even chance to pull off another upset until he double-faulted twice in the third game of the last set and again lost service in a 14-point fifth game.

“Lendl is a solid player. He doesn’t make many mistakes,” Svensson said. “The way he played today, he’s a favorite for the Open.”

Lendl was joined in the semifinals by unseeded Mikael Pernfors of Sweden, who downed Robert Seguso of Boca Raton, Fla., 6-4, 6-4.

In the other matches, Jim Courier of Dade City, Fla., defeated fifth-seeded Aaron Krickstein, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, and sixth-seeded Andrei Chesnokov of the Soviet Union eliminated unseeded Anders Jarryd of Sweden, 6-4, 6-2.