Navratilova Wins in TourTennis, Too : Tennis: She uses her summer in TeamTennis as a successful tuneup for L.A. and the U.S. Open.

TeamTennis a gimmick? A sideshow?

Not if you ask Martina Navratilova. It’s preparation for the second half of the women’s tennis tour, and Sunday it paid off.

Navratilova defeated top-ranked Monica Seles, 6-4, 6-2, to win the championship of the Virginia Slims of Los Angeles at the Manhattan Country Club.

Last week, Navratilova led the Atlanta Thunder of the World TeamTennis League to its second consecutive championship.

“TeamTennis gets you ready for pressure, there’s no question about that,” said Navratilova, 35, who went over $18 million in tour earnings.

TeamTennis has several rules different from tour, such as one set in each matchup (women’s singles, men’s doubles, and so on), no-ad scoring, and a player doesn’t have to win tiebreakers by two.

Then there’s a rule that says the trailing team can keep playing even after all five sets have been played, if it can keep winning games, until the match is tied and goes to a super-tiebreaker, which is basically one game to seven points that decides an entire match.

“You have many more big points in TeamTennis than you do in tournament tennis,” Navratilova said. “In tournament tennis you have to concentrate for a longer time, so you don’t get the quantity of concentration (in TeamTennis), but you get the quality of concentration.”

TeamTennis also is a chance to continue playing competitive tennis and stay sharp, rather than taking off the time between Wimbledon and this week’s tournament, as Seles did.

Navratilova, who helped the Thunder beat the Los Angeles Strings in the 1991 championship game, started playing for the Thunder before the 1991 season, “to keep myself sane,” she said.

Navratilova was involved in a palimony suit with Judy Nelson at the time.

“(Playing TeamTennis) was a nice way to keep my mind off it and enjoy the game for the sake of the game,” Navratilova said. “This year it was a little more difficult because I was pretty beat-up emotionally after Wimbledon and I would have preferred to have some time off, but I didn’t have that option.

“But still, it got me ready for here and for the (U.S.) Open.”

Navratilova said she thinks she has a good chance to win the Open, which starts Aug. 31 in New York. A self-proclaimed perfectionist, Navratilova said she can’t remember when she has been this happy with her play.

“I don’t think Craig (Kardon, her coach) is going to have too many comments from today’s match,” she said.

Navratilova, considering the level of her game now, also looked back at her semifinal loss to Seles at Wimbledon and wished she could have that match back.

“I told myself before the match if I had played like I’ve been playing here, I would have beaten her at Wimbledon,” she said. “I was that much sharper. I wish I could play TeamTennis in May.”