Graf Breezes to 50th Consecutive Win

Steffi Graf extended her singles winning streak to 50 matches today by breezing past Soviet Larisa Savchenko, 6-0, 6-3, in the quarterfinals of the Pan Pacific tennis tournament.

The 20-year-old West German, the world’s top-ranked women’s player, needed only 51 minutes to beat Savchenko, ranked 23rd.

“I had expected a much harder match because she is really a tough player,” Graf said. “On this surface it could have been a much closer match because she usually has a big serve. But she made simple mistakes.”

Graf meets Manuela Maleeva of Switzerland in the semifinals.

Maleeva, ranked eighth in the world, beat big-serving Brenda Schultz of The Netherlands, 6-2, 6-0. In another quarterfinal match, second-seeded Arantxa Sanchez of Spain downed American Gigi Fernandez, 1-6, 6-1, 6-2.