It’s a Long Day for the Martinas

Anke Huber spoiled Martina Navratilova’s final European tournament, beating the 37-year-old tennis great, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, Friday in the quarterfinals of the Porsche Grand Prix at Filderstadt, Germany.

The other Martina, 14-year-old Swiss prodigy Martina Hingis, lost in her second tournament as a pro. Showing inexperience, Hingis squandered four match points before Marianne Werdel beat her, 0-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7-5).

In other quarterfinal matches, top-seeded Conchita Martinez of Spain was upset by unseeded Karina Habsudova of the Slovakia, 6-4, 6-1. Martinez, the Wimbledon champion, played despite an ankle injury that was treated courtside several times and badly hampered her game. Third-seeded Mary Pierce of France needed only 44 minutes to beat Gigi Fernandez, 6-0, 6-1.

Navratilova, seeded second, trailed, 2-5, in the final set to Huber, a 19-year-old German. But she warded off five match points to win the game. Eventually, though, she missed a forehand, ending the match in 2 hours 20 minutes.

Hingis used steady ground strokes to force Werdel into mistakes in winning the first set in only 23 minutes. But in the second set, Werdel slammed easy winners off the weak serve of Hingis, who won junior titles at the French Open and Wimbledon. Hingis blew match points while holding 5-4 and 6-5 leads in the final set.