TENNIS / WOMEN AT LA COSTA : Sabatini Goes South Against Meskhi, Then East

Gabriela Sabatini leaves today for the U.S. Open. Come again?

Ticket holders for the final of the Mazda Tennis Classic be advised: Sabatini and Jennifer Capriati will not be meeting for the championship Sunday.

In a stunner at the La Costa Resort & Spa Thursday night, Leila Meskhi from the Republic of Georgia gave Sabatini a 1-hour 21-minute tennis lesson, 6-0, 6-3.

“I probably didn’t play enough matches,” said Sabatini, who looked sharp two nights earlier in a match she won without giving up a game.

Before her opener here, Sabatini was idle since Wimbledon, 51 days without a match.

In three previous meetings, Sabatini, the No. 4 player in the world and top-ranked in this tournament, didn’t drop a set to unseeded Meskhi, ranked 23rd in the world.

Asked if this was her best match of the year, Meskhi hesitated and said, “Yes.”

Asked if this was the best match of her life, she smiled and said, “Maybe.”

“I played my best tennis, and she played worse then she usually does,” Meskhi said.

None of the shots in Sabatini’s repertoire were working, especially in the first set.

“I lost my concentration at times,” said Sabatini, who forced four of the games in the first set to deuce but sprayed a battery of shots long, wide or short. “She played a good match.”

Sabatini hadn’t lost a 6-0 set since the semifinals of the 1990 Lipton International, in which she fell to Steffi Graf.

Meskhi will meet the winner of today’s Conchita Martinez-Ann Grossman match on Saturday in the semifinals.

Earlier in the day, Grossman was two games away from an upset of 10th-ranked Jana Novotna of Czechoslovakia when Novotna retired because of leg cramps at 4-6, 6-2, 4-2.

Tennis Notes

Calling Clyde: Zina Garrison’s brief hitting session with Clyde Drexler in Barcelona created the kind of commotion she can live with. “I need to play Clyde more often,” she said. “I got a lot of publicity out of that.” Garrison said if basketball hadn’t worked out, he’d be good enough for the men’s pro tour. “At that height? He’s quick and he can jump.” . . . Tickets for Saturday’s semifinals and Sunday’s final are sold out.