TENNIS ROUNDUP : No. 64-Ranked Player Stuns Navratilova

Martina Navratilova suffered her first loss since 1981 to a player ranked outside the world’s top 50, when she was ousted from the Eastbourne grass-court tournament in England Tuesday by Linda Harvey-Wild.

The second-round defeat was Navratilova’s earliest exit from any tournament since losing in the first round of the 1981 Virginia Slims of Oakland to Claudia Kohde-Kilsch. Top-seeded Navratilova had been unbeaten at Eastbourne since 1987, but she was unable to cope with a blustery wind as No. 64-ranked Harvey-Wild of Hawthorn Woods, Ill., defeated her, 6-3, 6-7 (7-4), 6-3.

“I am not going to cry, I thought about it in the locker room but then I said, ‘No,’ ” Navratilova said. “I am more frustrated than anything else.

“I played as well as I could. There was nothing to be ashamed of or embarrassed about, she just coped with the conditions better than me.”

Harvey-Wild, 21, who went for the lines throughout, had a chance to put away the match in the second set when she served with a 5-4 lead, but Navratilova cracked a backhand winner cross court to pull even. “It was the first time that I have had the chance to play Martina,” Harvey-Wild said. “Now I can tell my friends that I have played and beaten someone they have heard of.”

Brad Gilbert, seeded second, overcame Bryan Shelton, 7-6 (8-6), 6-7 (7-2), 6-3, but three seeded players from Russia were upset in the grass-court tournament at Manchester, England.

“It was a struggle,” Gilbert said. “He’s so totally dominant on his serve.”

Wally Masur of Australia eliminated top-seeded Alexander Volkov of Russia, 6-3, 4-6, 7-5; Paul Annacone beat No. 6 Andrei Cherkasov, 7-6 (7-4), 6-7 (7-2), 7-6 (9-7), and Jeff Tarango defeated No. 7 Andrei Chesnokov, 7-6 (8-6), 2-6, 7-6 (14-12).

Fabrice Santoro of France upset top-seeded Thomas Muster of Austria, 6-4, 6-1, in the opening round of the Genoa International clay-court tournament in Italy.