TENNIS ROUNDUP : Martina Wins Despite Knee Injury

Top-seeded Martina Navratilova overcame a painful knee to beat seventh-seeded Jana Novotna of Czechoslovakia, 7-6, 3-6, 6-3, Friday at Eastbourne, England, and, for the 11th consecutive year, reached the final of the Eastbourne grass court warm-up for Wimbledon.

Navratilova will play Gretchen Magers for the title today. Magers reached her first tournament final since October by beating Lori McNeil, 7-6, 6-2.

Women’s Tennis Assn. trainer Kathleen Stroia tended to Navratilova’s left knee after she lost serve to go down, 0-2, in the second set and requested an injury timeout. Navratilova said later she was taking an over-the-counter medicine to reduce inflammation in the knee.

Two other players were forced to retire because of knee injuries.

Third-seeded Mary Joe Fernandez was trailing Magers, 2-6, 2-2, in a rain-delayed quarterfinal when she defaulted because of what the WTA described as a “possible tear” of the medial cartilage in the right knee.

McNeil also benefited from an opponent’s knee injury. She led Manon Bollegraf of the Netherlands, 6-3, 1-1, in another quarterfinal when Bollegraf withdrew because of what was described as an “overstretched right knee.”

It was not known how the injuries to Fernandez and Bollegraf would affect their participation at Wimbledon, which starts Monday. Fernandez is seeded ninth.

Navratilova, 33, who has won Wimbledon and Eastbourne eight times each, said her knee injury was recurrent.

“I have had it for a couple of years and it flares up sometimes,” she said. “It’s just an old knee beat up. I don’t expect any real trouble. After about four more games it went away.”

Earlier in the day, Navratilova beat fifth-seeded Natalia Zvereva, 7-6, 6-1, in a delayed quarterfinal.

In her match against Novotna, Navratilova, after having her knee treated, at first appeared tentative. But she picked up her game to overcome a stubborn challenge.

Novotna served for the first set at 5-4 but was broken and then lost the tiebreaker, 7-3.

Although Novotna, a hard hitting serve-and-volleyer, won the second set, she was again broken in the second game of the third set.

Navratilova then regained control.

“I wanted to see if I can play with a sore knee. If I can’t do it here, I can’t do it next week,” Navratilova said. “It came through and I am encouraged by that and by my play.”

Second-seeded Pete Sampras and unseeded Gilad Bloom of Israel each won two matches to advance to the final of the rain-plagued warm-up for Wimbledon at Manchester, England.

With bad weather early in the week backing up the schedule, three quarterfinals and both semifinals were played Friday.

Sampras, the only seeded player remaining in the field at the start of the day, beat Kelly Evernden of New Zealand, 6-3, 7-6, in their quarterfinal, then reached his second tournament final of the year by beating Eric Jelen of West Germany, 6-7, 6-4, 6-4.

Bloom eliminated Kelly Jones, 3-6, 7-5, 6-1, in the quarterfinals, and Britain’s Nick Brown, 6-4, 7-4, in the semifinals.

It is the first time Bloom has reached a final this season.

Sampras, who defeated French Open champion Andres Gomez for the U.S. Indoor title in Philadelphia in February, started the day on the wrong foot.

“I left my grass court shoes at the hotel and had to send someone to get them at 2-1 in the first set,” he said.

In an exhibition tuneup at Virginia Water, England, John McEnroe lost to Guy Forget of France, 9-7.

France’s Henri Leconte beat Jim Courier, 9-8, and Pat Cash of Australia, 9-7, to advance to the final against Forget.