Navratilova Desperate for Victory on Clay Court

Top-seeded Martina Navratilova says she needs to win on clay if she is going to wrest the No. 1 women’s tennis ranking from Steffi Graf.

But Navratilova, who has not won a clay court tournament in nearly two years, is not making any predictions about this week’s $500,000 Family Circle Magazine Cup, where she is the top seed.

“I’m not looking down the road too far. I’ve just got to get back and think about every match,” she said after defeating Halle Cioffi 6-2, 6-1 Tuesday in the second round of the event.

Navratilova was to return to action today against Isabel Cueto, the No. 12 seed. The No. 2 seed--Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario--opens play in the tournament against Mary Lou Daniels.

Katerina Maleeva of Bulgaria defeated Linda Harvey-Wild of Hawthorn Woods, Ill., 6-1, 6-2 today in a second-round match. Maleeva, ranked 10th in the world and seeded fifth in this event, had a first-round bye, and Harvey-Wild easily won her opening match 6-0, 6-1 over Hellas Ter Riet.

Jennifer Capriati was scheduled to play a second-round match later today against Angeliki Kanellopoulou of Greece.

Navratilova said her toughest competition this time is “my next round. I can have stiff competition from a lot of people. A lot of players are good on this stuff, and they play on it more than I do.”