Tennis Roundup : Navratilova Sweeps Sanchez Vicario, 6-2, 6-2

Top-seeded Martina Navratilova won her fourth Canadian Open tennis title Sunday with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over French Open champion Arantxa Sanchez Vicario of Spain at Toronto.

Navratilova, 32, won eight consecutive games, breaking Sanchez Vicario to take a 3-2 lead in the opening set and cruising to a 3-0 advantage in the second.

Sanchez Vicario, seeded fourth, upset No. 2 Gabriela Sabatini of Argentina, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, in the semifinals.

But she was unable to handle Navratilova.

Sanchez Vicario, 17, down two breaks and 3-0 in the second set, broke back to make it 3-1, but could not sustain the rally.

In the fifth game, she staved off five breaks points in a game that went to deuce six times, before losing another break as Navratilova took a 4-1 lead.

“I just played my match,” Navratilova said. “She was going to have to hit a lot of passing shots to beat me.

“I hit a couple of extra second serves in practice. It paid off. I only hit one double fault.”

Sanchez Vicario, a clay-court specialist, said she learned about the nuances of hardcourts from Sunday’s match.

“I have to improve more my serve and come more to the net . . . I’m young so I have a lot of time,” she said. “A match like this, you learn so I play better next time.”

Ivan Lendl rallied to defeat Mikael Pernfors of Sweden, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4, and win the Hamlet Challenge Cup at Jericho, N.Y.

“I’d have preferred an easier match, but Mikael played very well and I had no choice,” said Lendl, who is seeded first in the U.S. Open, which starts today.

Lendl, winner of six tournaments this year, committed numerous unforced errors and lost the first set when Pernfors broke his service in the first and seventh games.

“I didn’t anticipate anything,” Lendl said. “I was playing this tournament to get ready for the Open. I feel good physically. I’m not concerned.”

Beginning at 2-2 in the second set, Lendl won seven consecutive games to tie the match, 1-1, and take a 3-0 lead in the third set.

“I hit some good shots and he started getting tired,” Lendl said. “He had made some dangerous shots, diving for the ball on the hard court.”

Pernfors, who lost the 1986 French Open final to Lendl, said:

“This was the fifth time I have played Lendl and the first time I have got a set from him. I moved well and I dive for the ball if I can’t reach it any other way. I know it’s dangerous on a hard court, but that’s my game.”

Jay Berger defeated top-seeded Michael Chang, 6-4, 0-6, 6-3, to win a tournament at Wilmington, Del.

“This is the best I’ve ever been playing heading into the U.S. Open,” Berger said.

Berger, of Plantation, Fla., won the first five games of the match, but Chang rallied to win 10 of the next 11 to force a third set.

With the third set tied, 3-3, Berger won his serve, then broke Chang and won.

“I think he’s really improved,” Chang said. “He’s more comfortable at the net. It’s really good that he’s mixing his game up more so he’s more unpredictable.”

Goran Ivanisevic used strong ground strokes and steady serving to defeat an injured Andrei Cherkasov, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2, in the final of a tournament at Princeton, N.J.

Cherkasov, of the Soviet Union, sprained his tendon below the right knee on an overhead in the 10th game of the first set but continued despite sharp pains that limited his movement.

With the first set tied, 6-6, Ivanisevic, of Yugoslavia, scored successive breaks on the 10th and 11th points of the tiebreaker with a forehand winner and a deep backhand service return to take the set.