Navratilova feeling heat

Press, 26 June 1987, Page 30

Navratilova feeling heat

NZPA-Reuter London There comes a moment in the span of all champions when they are made brutally aware of the fact that their time is nearing an end.

It probably happened to Martina Navratilova in Key Biscayne, Florida, last January when she was blasted off court by Steffi Graf in the Tournament Players’ Championships. Long after the 56minute 6-3, 6-2, rout was over, a visibly stunned Navratilova sat slumped in the locker room, making no effort to hide the tears of humiliation and

frustration. Graf, then 17, went on to inflict a similar thrashing on Chris Evert in the final and became an instant celebrity three weeks ago when she beat

Navratilova again, this time coming from 3-5 down in the third set, in the final of the French Open. In between those defeats, Navratilova had taken a number of steps ' in an attempt to postpone Graf’s inevitable graduation to world No. 1, one of which was to switch rackets in the hope of reproducing the awesome

power generated by the teenager. Grafs British-made racket had assumed magical qualities by this time and even John McEnroe, who had a practice session with the West German, telephoned the makers to inquire if “Steffi has some type of super-racket.” Although Grafs renowned power is the result of her near-perfect timing and the tension of her strings, Navratilova borrowed a similar model from her Canadian practice partner, Carling Bassett, during the Italian

Open in Rome at the beginning of May.

Navratilova liked what she found and asked her Japanese racket-maker to design a replica. When that proved impossible, she simply bought six of the type used by Graf, obliterated the maker’s trademarks, and replaced them with, the logos of her own sponsors.

During the French Open in Paris, Navratilova said: "My racket company has promised me an identical model... I should have it by the end of the week.”