TENNIS ROUNDUP : McEnroe, Leach Clinch U.S. Davis Cup Victory

John McEnroe and Rick Leach awoke from a first-set stupor and dominated Argentina’s Javier Frana and Christian Miniussi in a 6-7, 6-2, 6-2, 6-1 victory Saturday at Kohala Coast, Hawaii, as the United States advanced into the Davis Cup quarterfinals.

The next opponent for the Americans, who won the first two singles matches Friday, will be Czechoslovakia, which eliminated Belgium.

McEnroe and Leach, playing as a doubles team for the first time, took control after losing seven consecutive points in the first-set tiebreaker.

The Americans broke service in the opening game of the second set, completing it when Frana’s backhand return was out.

McEnroe and Leach got another break in the set, two in the third and three in the fourth.

With the outcome long since decided, the U.S. finished Argentina with a service break in the seventh game, when Frana was barely able to get a racket on McEnroe’s cross-court return.

McEnroe and Frana jabbered at each other throughout the match, with McEnroe telling Frana to “stay awake” when the Argentine was hit by one of Leach’s returns.

Martina Navratilova ended Magdalena Maleeva’s run of upsets by defeating the 16-year-old from Bulgaria, 6-2, 6-2, in the semifinals of the Pan Pacific Open at Tokyo.

The victory put Navratilova one step from setting a record for career tournament victories. She is tied with Chris Evert at 157 titles, the most by a female player.

Top-seeded Gabriela Sabatini of Argentina advanced to the final by defeating Japan’s top player, Kimiko Date, 6-3, 6-0, in one hour.

Navratilova and Sabatini also played the championship match last year. Sabatini won in three sets. Navratilova leads, 13-4, in their head-to-head competition.

Asked about the record, Navratilova said: “I am confident that I will make it one day, but I don’t know if it will happen tomorrow. I am just thinking about who I am playing tomorrow.”

Navratilova needed less than an hour to dispose of Maleeva, the youngest of three tennis-playing sisters.

Navratilova repeatedly moved to the net, and Maleeva fought back with passing shots. But the 35-year-old star broke the fourth game after four deuces.

Asked why she didn’t play as much at the net as she did in her upsets of Jennifer Capriati and Helena Sukova, Maleeva said: “Because this is Martina. I tried a couple of times. I didn’t get too many short balls that would let me go to the net.”

Top-seeded Andrea Strnadova of Czechoslovakia defeated Larisa Savchenko-Neiland, 6-2, 3-6, 6-2, and advanced to the final of a women’s tournament at Auckland, New Zealand, for the second year in a row.

Strnadova will face unseeded Robin White in the final. White defeated Petra Thoren of Finland, 6-4, 6-3, in the other semifinal.