Navratilova falters but prevails in French Open

Press, 7 June 1982, Page 14

Navratilova falters but prevails in French Open

NZPA-Reuter Paris The secondseed, Martina Navratilova, prevailed in a desperate first-set struggle ana then raced away with the second set to beat the American teenager, Andrea Jaeger, 7-6, 6-1, in the women’s final of the French Open tennis championships on Saturday. In blazing sunshine, Ms Navratilova, bom tn Prague but now a naturalised American, heaved an audible sigh of relief when she clinched the first set after six breaks of serve. In the second set she settled down to her normal, attacking game, giving Miss Jaeger no chance to dominate with her looping, topspun groundstrokes to the baseline.

After being presented with the trophy, Ms Navratilova told the 16,000 crowd at the Roland Garros stadium: ‘1 think we have shown you that women can play good tennis.”

Her victory, worth SUSSO,OOO, also proved the point that she has been making throughout the tournament—that she has been consistently under-rated on clay. In the early rounds she was in stunning form as she progressed towards her first French title. Her best previous performance in the French Open was runner-up to Chris Evert LLoyd seven years ago.

Throughout the tournament she dropped only one set-to Kathy Rinaldi, of the

United States, in the fourth round. On Saturday, she swept into a two-game lead before Miss Jaeger had time to settle down. But she was unable to maintain this early surge and Miss Jaeger, who

collected $25,000, looked capable of running her close. However, in the second set, Ms Navratilova’s power and the quality of her strokeplay proved too strong, and in the end her 17-year-old opponent had kept her on court for just 100 minutes.