TENNIS ROUNDUP : Navratilova Wins Title on Her 36th Birthday

Martina Navratilova celebrated her 36th birthday Sunday by beating top-seeded Gabriela Sabatini, 7-6 (7-1), 6-3, to win the Porsche Grand Prix at Filderstadt, Germany.

The victory, the 161st of Navratilova’s career, enabled her to earn $70,000 from a purse of $350,000 and a pink Porsche.

“After last week’s defeat against Steffi Graf in the Zurich final, I felt really badly at the start of the week,” Navratilova said. “But then I felt better from day to day, and today came the crowning.”

Navratilova won the first three and last four points of the tiebreaker before breaking Sabatini twice to take a 3-0 lead in the second set.

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Ivan Lendl overcame a first-set deficit to end a 14-month championship drought, beating Swede Henrik Holm, 7-6 (9-7), 6-4, in the Seiko Super tournament at Tokyo.

Lendl rallied from 2-5 to win the opening set. The 32-year-old Lendl earned $135,000 from a purse of $1.1 million by winning for the first time since August, 1991.

“(Holm) served very well, so it was important to get the ball back preferably low to put pressure on him,” Lendl said.

Holm slammed 18 aces.

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Daniel Courcol of Mississippi State defeated Mark Merklein of Florida, 6-4, 7-6 (7-3), in the title match of the Volvo Tennis Collegiate Championships at Austin, Tex.

The victory made Courcol the first player to win the first two legs of the Collegiate Grand Slam. He won the Intercollegiate Tennis Assn.’s National Clay Court Championships three weeks ago.

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Thomas Enquist of Sweden won the $310,000 Bolzano Indoor with a 6-2, 1-6, 7-6 (8-6) victory over fifth-seeded Arnaud Boetsch of France at Bolzano, Italy.

Enquist, 18, won the first set in 23 minutes, but was broken three times by Boetsch in the second set. Enquist broke serve in the first game of the final set but lost the advantage in the fourth game before winning the tiebreaker.