TENNIS ROUNDUP : Zvereva Has Mold for Win Over Martina

Martina Navratilova is a clay pigeon against Natalia Zvereva.

Zvereva had Navratilova right where she wanted her Thursday, registering a 6-4, 6-2 upset in the third round of the Family Circle Cup tournament on the clay courts at Hilton Head Island, S.C.

“Natalia always gives me fits,” said the fourth-ranked Navratilova, who is 0-3 on clay against Zvereva, No. 27, from Belarus.

“She was going for broke and making the vast majority of her shots. Today she played like a top 10 player.”

In other matches, Patricia Hy of Canada upset sixth-seeded Jana Novotna of Czechoslovakia, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1, and third-seeded Arantxa Sanchez Vicario of Spain defeated Ines Gorrochategui of Argentina, 6-2, 6-1.

Top-seeded Gabriela Sabatini of Argentina was leading No. 14 Amanda Coetzer of South Africa, 7-5, 5-3, when the match was halted by darkness.

Bjorn Borg rekindled memories of past glories with a crowd-pleasing comeback attempt before losing to Nicolas Pereira of Venezuela, 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (7-5), in an exhibition tournament at Houston.

“Even though I lost, it was a good tournament for me,” Borg said. “This is exactly what I needed, to play a lot of matches like this. I got going well in the second set. It just took me a while to get into the match.”

Gary Muller of South Africa upset fifth-seeded Javier Frana of Argentina, 6-4, 6-4, and advanced to the quarterfinals of the South African Open at Johannesburg.

Horacio de la Pena of Argentina beat third-seeded Karel Novacek of Czechoslovakia, 7-6 (7-3), 6-2, in the second round of the Estoril Open at Lisbon, Portugal.

Top-seeded Ivan Lendl defeated Javier Molina of Spain, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2.