Martina Testing Limits

It seemed like old times Saturday at the Manhattan Country Club in Manhattan Beach. On the stadium court in front of an appreciative crowd, Martina Navratilova was playing in the semifinals of a WTA Tour event.

But this was 2002, not 1992. It was doubles, not singles.

And Navratilova was bounced from the tournament, she and Liezel Huber losing to Daniela Hantuchova and Ai Sugiyama, 6-4, 6-0, in the JPMorgan Chase Open.

Navratilova, who won five of her WTA tour-record 167 singles championships and four of her record 166 doubles titles in Manhattan Beach, played in the tournament for the first time since launching her limited comeback two years ago.

Navratilova, 45, probably thought she’d never play again in the Southland. Her comeback, started in Madrid in 2000, has expanded far beyond what she envisioned. This tournament was her 10th this year, her 29th in a little more than two years, and she is committed to four more before the end of the year.

“It just sort of mushroomed,” she said of her return to the circuit. “I wasn’t planning on playing this much, but when you put in all the work off the court, you want to put it to use because it takes just as much effort to get ready to play two tournaments as it does to play eight tournaments.

“That’s what happened. I think I got more and more serious about it and I could see that I was getting better. I still haven’t reached where I can get to, whatever level that is. It’s the elusive search for the limit, I guess.”

It’s a search that may end after this year. Navratilova, who combined with Natasha Zvereva to win at Madrid in May and has a 36-28 match record with a number of partners since her return, is undecided about playing next year.

“It’s sort of creeping in a little too much,” she said of her comeback, which also included a one-tournament return to singles at Eastbourne, England, in June. “It’s taking over my life too much. It’s like the ivy that just sort of keeps growing. You don’t really notice it, but a year later it’s two yards down the wall.”

Not that she hasn’t enjoyed it.

“I’m having a great time,” she said. “It’s frustrating that I don’t win as much as I used to, or at all. But the response I get from the crowd has been just phenomenal. Everybody is so excited to see me play again and see some shots that people don’t hit anymore. And getting motivated, perhaps, to do more with their life physically, if not mentally. Don’t let age be a limitation.”

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Chanda Rubin, who will play Lindsay Davenport in today’s singles final as she continues her comeback from January knee surgery, was ranked a career-high No. 6 in 1996. But her coach, Benny Sims, said she was nowhere near the player then that she is now at No. 21.

“That was before any Venus and Serena [Williams], before [Martina] Hingis, [in the time of] overweight Lindsay,” Sims said. “She’s a much better player now, much more complete. The game is at least 50% tougher now than in ’96. All you had then was Steffi [Graf] and Monica [Seles].”