TENNIS ROUNDUP : Sabatini Improves and Beats Navratilova

Gabriela Sabatini defeated Martina Navratilova, 2-6, 6-2, 6-4, today to win the $350,000 Pan Pacific tournament at Tokyo.

Sabatini, seeded fifth, overcame erratic serving in the first set to overpower the more accurate Navratilova.

“It’s a wonderful feeling,” said Sabatini, who had defeated Steffi Graf, the world’s top-ranked women’s player, in the quarterfinals Friday. “I’ve been playing well here all week.”

Navratilova, coming back from a three-month absence after having surgery on both knees, breezed through the first five games of the match as Sabatini struggled to adjust her serve.

But Sabatini aced Navratilova on her opening serve of the second set and went on to win the next three games.

Though Navratilova broke Sabatini’s serve in the first game of the third set, she seemed to run out of steam three games later, allowing her service to be broken in the sixth and eighth games.

The third-seeded Navratilova had won all but three of her past matches against Sabatini, who is ranked fourth in the world. Sabatini, who defeated Mary Joe Fernandez in the semifinals, 6-3, 6-4, won $70,000.

Navratilova, five victories from matching Chris Evert’s record 157 singles titles, advanced to the final with a 6-2, 7-6 (7-5) victory over Laura Gildemeister of Peru.

Sweden, which made the Davis Cup finals for seven consecutive years in the 1980s, was eliminated in the first round Saturday.

Yugoslavia clinched a victory over Sweden when Goran Ivanisevic and Goran Prpic beat Stefan Edberg and Peter Lundgren in doubles in Zagreb. That gave Yugoslavia an unbeatable 3-0 lead in the best-of-five competition.

Ivanisevic, the world’s No. 7 player, served seven aces and dominated at the net as the Yugoslavs won, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.

In another opening-round series, Italy took a 2-1 lead over Germany when Diego Nargiso and Omar Camporese beat Boris Becker and Eric Jelen, 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (8-6), 4-6, 6-3, in Dortmund, Germany. The series will be decided today when the reverse singles are played.

The final of a $100,000 women’s tournament at Auckland, New Zealand, will be an all-Czechoslovakian affair with Andrea Strnadova facing Eva Sviglerova.

Strnadova defeated Cristina Tessi, 6-0, 6-4, and Sviglerova upset second-seeded Mercedes Paz, 6-2, 6-3. Both semifinal losers are from Argentina.