U.S. OPEN TENNIS : Graf Still Has Edge in the Clutch : Navratilova Unravels Again After Taking 6-3, 4-2 Lead

If there will be a time, as Martina Navratilova believes, that she is going to beat Steffi Graf again, it had better come pretty soon.

Realistically, at 32, there can’t be too many more chances for Navratilova, who might have blown the best opportunity she’s going to get.

Graf, the world’s No. 1 player, won the U.S. Open Saturday, her third Grand Slam title of the year and the second at the expense of Navratilova, who once again came from ahead to lose.

Graf, 20, earned her second consecutive U.S. Open championship, an eighth Grand Slam event title and her seventh in two years after trailing Navratilova a set and a service break, 3-6, 2-4.

From that point on, Navratilova lost 11 of the final 13 games and fell, 3-6, 7-5, 6-1.

For Graf, it was a victory she fully expected, unlike the way she felt during her difficult, three-set semifinal victory over Gabriela Sabatini. In that one, Graf only had to battle muscle cramps. Against Navratilova, she just waited for her to crack.

“I never had the feeling I would lose today,” Graf said. “I knew my chance would come. There was simply no way she would continue to play like the first set.”

Navratilova’s demise arrived in the eighth game of the second set.

Serving at 4-3, Navratilova double-faulted twice, made two volley errors and was broken at 15.

“I had been serving so well,” a chagrined Navratilova said. “I just let it slide.”

It was a short ride to the bottom. Navratilova had only one more chance. She held a break point for 5-4, which if she converted it, meant she could serve for the match. But Graf saved it.

She served wide to Navratilova’s backhand, and Graf swooped in to take the short return and put away a cross-court backhand winner. The significance of that missed chance was not lost on Navratilova.

“At the (break) point at 4-4, it’s virtually match point, because the next game, I won at 40-15, so you figure I was one point from winning the match,” Navratilova said.

Such circumstances may be happening too regularly in Navratilova-Graf matches to be coincidence.

In their 1987 French Open final, Navratilova was serving for the match at 5-3 in the third set and double-faulted on match point. Graf won, 6-4, 4-6, 8-6.

At Wimbledon last summer, Navratilova won the first set and was ahead of Graf, 2-0, in the second, but dropped 12 of the next 13 games to lose, 5-7, 6-2, 6-1.

Now, add this Open, a 6-3, 4-2, lead and another Navratilova defeat at the hands of Graf. Ted Tinling, an author and historian of tennis, said Navratilova’s latest problem in the clutch was not out of character.

“It was unlikely that Martina would get through a big final without choking,” Tinling said.

Navratilova offered no evidence of that in the early going. She saved a break point in the sixth game and broke Graf at love for 5-3 by forcing errors with pressure at the net.

If Navratilova was shaky, she didn’t show it when she served for the set. She won at love after two sharp volleys paired with a couple of service winners.

Graf saved a break point in the first game of the second set, but at 30-30 in the third game, a running forehand approach sailed long, and her backhand cross-court passing shot went wide.

Although Navratilova saved two more break points at 2-1, Graf didn’t seem to be making much of an impact. Her backhand pass down the line at game point got her within, 2-4, and that’s where everything changed.

Two double faults, two unforced errors, and it’s out of control for Navratilova.

“By the third set, she’s a runaway train,” Navratilova said.

That double fault by Navratilova at break point, which gave Graf a 3-1 lead, certainly didn’t help much, either. Graf gave up only five points on her serve in the third set and closed out the match at love.

She aced Navratilova on match point, which is just what she did in the final at Wimbledon. And if that isn’t part of a trend, too, then someone isn’t paying attention.

Martina?

“I’m not discouraged because I know that I can beat Steffi and I can beat anybody and win a Grand Slam event,” Navratilova said. “My head is better than it has ever been, so now I need to just crown it with a win.”

As far as she and Graf are concerned, well, the gap is closing, Navratilova said, even if they will always be separated by 12 years of birthdays.

Graf isn’t as sure. When she was asked if Navratilova was getting closer to beating her, Graf laughed.

“I don’t think so,” Graf said. “On the contrary, now that I’m coming more often to the net, it’s even more difficult for her.”