TENNIS ROUNDUP : Capriati and Navratilova Win, Will Meet in Final

American teen-ager Jennifer Capriati continued to live up to her billing Saturday by reaching her second final in only her third tournament since turning professional last month.

The unseeded 14-year-old overwhelmed sixth-seeded Natalia Zvereva of the Soviet Union, 6-0, 6-4, in 57 minutes to earn a shot at Martina Navratilova, who is 19 years older than Capriati, in the final of the $500,000 Family Circle Magazine Cup at Hilton Head Island, S.C.

Navratilova, seeded first and a three-time champion in the tournament, eliminated unseeded Regina Rajchrtova of Czechoslovakia, 6-4, 6-3, without losing a service game.

“I always dreamed I would get to the finals of a pro tournament playing Martina. I’m really happy. She’s a legend,” said Capriati, who lost in her first final appearance to third-ranked Gabriela Sabatini last month.

Capriati raced through the first set against the 14th-ranked Zvereva in 17 minutes by rushing the net and repeatedly scoring with volley winners.

Zvereva finally held serve in the second game of the second set and managed to break Capriati in the fifth game to lead 3-2.

Capriati won the next three games to go up, 5-3, and after dropping her serve in the ninth game, she broke Zvereva to close out her victory.

Navratilova was unable to go to her usual attacking game on the slow, green clay and instead relied on nearly error-free shot-making to control points on her serve.

Third-seeded Christo van Rensburg of South Africa defeated David Pate, 6-7 (2-7), 6-3, 7-5, to advance to the final of a $250,000 tournament in Orlando, Fla.

In today’s final, van Rensberg will play top-seeded Brad Gilbert, who defeated qualifier MaliVai Washington, 6-2, 7-5.

Gilbert has a 4-0 record against van Rensburg.

Van Rensburg broke Pate in the 11th game of the third set when Pate netted a forehand volley.

Andre Chesnokov defeated Andre Agassi, 6-4, 6-7 (7-4), 6-2, as part of the Forum Tennis challenge.