Tennis Roundup : Navratilova Easily Wins Title--Her First Since Wimbledon

Martina Navratilova routed West German teen-ager Steffi Graf, 6-3, 6-1, at Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Sunday for her first tournament victory since Wimbledon.

“That’s number one,” Navratilova said. “Winning isn’t a relief, but losing would have been a disaster.”

Navratilova lost in her previous two tournaments, the Canadian and U.S. opens, for the first time since 1981.

The top-seeded player won $27,000 with a serve-and-volley attack that broke Graf’s service six of eight times in the $150,000 Lynda Carter-Maybelline tournament.

Graf, 16, had one strong stretch, erasing a 3-0 deficit and breaking Navratilova to reach 3-3. But Navratilova won the next three games, and a few disputed line calls added to Graf’s frustration.

Boris Becker, the 17-year-old Wimbledon champion, defeated Libor Pimek, 6-1, 6-4, and Michael Westphal upset Miloslav Mecir, 6-3, 6-4, to complete a 5-0 sweep for West Germany over Czechoslovakia in the Davis Cup semifinals at Frankfurt, West Germany.

West Germany on Saturday assured itself of a berth in December’s final against defending champion Sweden when it built an insurmountable 3-0 lead.

Becker, with his serve-and-volley game perfectly suited for the fast indoor carpet in the main hall of Frankfurt’s Festhalle, blasted 10 aces past the 22-year-old Pimek to win in 63 minutes.

Becker was never behind and never dropped his booming service.

Westphal, another hard server, capped a final performance by scoring his second upset victory in the series. He served eight aces past a lethargic Mecir, breaking the Czech once in the first and twice in the second set to win in one hour.

Defending Davis Cup champion Sweden completed a 5-0 rout of Australia in their World Group semifinal as Mats Wilander and Anders Jarryd won singles matches at Malmo, Sweden.

The Swedes did not lose a set in the best-of-five series. Australia, missing top-ranked players Pat Cash and Paul McNamee because of injuries, had won all four previous Davis Cup meetings with Sweden.

Wilander beat Peter McNamara, 6-4, 6-3, on the slow clay court surface in the Baltic Hall Arena, while Jarryd defeated Davis Cup rookie Wally Masur, 6-1, 6-2.