TENNIS ROUNDUP : Graf Shrugs Off Start, Knocks Off Sabatini

Steffi Graf was a bit sluggish at the outset before slugging out a 7-6 (7-5), 6-3 victory over Gabriela Sabatini Sunday to win the New England Virginia Slims tournament at Worcester, Mass.

The 84-minute match was Graf’s 20th victory over Sabatini in 24 meetings since 1985. It was Graf’s fourth consecutive tournament win and her 10th championship of the year.

“I was not positive when I started, but I was satisfied, especially with the end of the first set and the second set,” Graf said. “I got more aggressive.”

Sabatini built leads of 4-2 and 5-3 in the first set before Graf broke serve in the 10th game and forced the tiebreaker.

Graf kicked off the tiebreaker with an ace clocked at 96 m.p.h., and Sabatini couldn’t catch up.

The players exchanged service breaks early in the second set, with Sabatini taking a 3-2 lead. But Graf ran off three consecutive games to win the set in 32 minutes.

Jakob Hlasek served 13 aces and defeated Michael Chang, 7-6 (7-4), 6-3, in the final of the Wembley indoor tournament at London.

Hlasek, who also won the Wembley title in 1988, celebrated his 26th birthday a day early by getting his first tour victory of the year. He collected the winner’s purse of $42,800.

“I served very well on the big points,” Hlasek said. “He really couldn’t jump on me because my first serve was so good. I tried to go for it on my first serve, to go for a lot of quick points.”

Defending champion Chang, one of the best service returners on the tour, managed only one break and rarely threatened in Hlasek’s other service games.

“It was a matter of getting a good start on his serve, but he came up with big serves at the right time,” Chang said. “The most difficult part about playing him today was just getting his serve back.”

Andrei Cherkasov of the Soviet Union defeated Tim Mayotte, 6-2, 6-1, at Moscow to win the Kremlin Cup, the first men’s professional tennis tournament in the Soviet Union.

“I am very happy that I could win this tournament in my own country, the first ever held in the Soviet Union,” said Cherkasov, speaking at courtside to the cheers of the 15,000 fans who filled the Olympic indoor stadium.

Conchita Martinez of Spain defeated Leila Meskhi of the Soviet Union, 6-4, 6-2, in the championship match of the $150,000 Jell-O tournament at Indianapolis.

Fourth-seeded Donny Isaak of USC downed Brett Hansen-Dent of UC Irvine, 6-1, 3-6, 6-2, to win the Rolex-ITCA Southern California Championships at Irvine.