TENNIS ROUNDUP : Navratilova Not Over Hill Yet, Beats Seles

Martina Navratilova might have slipped, but not much.

Navratilova showed she is still among the best players in the world by ending Monica Seles’ 34-match winning streak, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (7-3), Sunday to win the Paris Women’s Open.

At 36 years 3 months 29 days, Navratilova became the oldest player to beat a top-ranked player. Billie Jean King was several weeks younger when she beat Navratilova in 1980.

“I was really overwhelmed after the match,” Navratilova said. “At the beginning of the week I thought I had no chance to win. But then I made myself believe myself I could do it. I will look back at this one with undiluted pleasure.”

Seles, whose last previous loss was to Arantxa Sanchez Vicario of Spain last August at the Canadian Open, has won 10 of 17 matches against Navratilova, including the last three times they played.

Navratilova, playing in her third final in three weeks on three continents, had made seven consecutive finals. She lost to Seles last week at Chicago.

“For her age it’s incredible,” Seles said. “But she is so much physically stronger than me. Her body is so different and can take it. But Martina just played a great match.”

In the third set, Navratilova battled from a break down at 5-4. Seles served for the match, but Navratilova evened it behind forehand approach shots that forced Seles wide, setting up easy volleys.

Navratilova went ahead, 6-5, but Seles forced the tiebreaker. They split the first six points, but Navratilova ran out the set and match.

Mark Woodforde of Australia won the U.S. Indoor tournament at Philadelphia when fourth-seeded Ivan Lendl retired with a back injury while trailing, 5-4.

Derrick Rostagno was fined $1,000 for hitting a ball at the umpire after a controversial line call Saturday when he lost to Woodforde in the semifinals.

Sixth-seeded Michael Stich of Germany earned $355,000, one of the biggest prizes on the ATP Tour, by beating fifth-seeded Richard Krajicek of the Netherlands, 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7-4), 3-6, 7-5, in the final of the Eurocard Open at Stuttgart, Germany. “This is a step on the ladder,” said Stich, who was ranked 13th but will move up.

Third-seeded Zina Garrison-Jackson defeated seventh-seeded Patty Fendick, 6-2, 6-2, to win her second consecutive IGA Classic at Oklahoma City.

Garrison Jackson took advantage of five double faults to break Fendick’s four times in the 62-minute match.

Fifth-ranked UCLA defeated No. 17 Tennessee, 5-2, to win the men’s National Indoor Championship for the second time in three years at Louisville, Ky.

Jason Sher beat Tennessee’s Clayton Johnson, 6-4, 6-4, at No. 5 singles to give UCLA (11-0) its winning point.