Navratilova beats opponent and rain

Press, 27 June 1987, Page 84

Navratilova beats opponent and rain

NZPA-AP Wimbledon Defending champion Martina Navratilova advanced to the third round of the Wimbledon tennis championships with two quick victories, putting her right where she expected to be at this stage of the tournament.

The problem is, nobody else is in the third round yet. The reason — rain, and more rain. As a result, attention was focused on the groundsmen, the referee and the state of the courts at the All England Club rather than on Navratilova.

The Czech-born American kept on course for a record sixth successive title by beating Etsuko Inoue of Japan 6-1, 6-2 in just 41 minutes. The match was the only one to beat the showers.

“I am so lucky to have been able to finish,” Navratilova said. “The worst thing is to be stopped in the middle.”

That’s exactly what happened to Ivan Lendl, the world’s top-ranked men’s player, who was in

trouble on centre court against Italy’s Paolo Cane in the only other match that started on Thurs day. The Italian led 6-3, 5-5 when rain — which already had interrupted the second-round match for one long stretch — returned for good and suspended play. Cane, ranked 40th in the world, broke for a 3-1 lead and clinched the set with a short lob. Tournament referee, Alan Mills, said Thursday’s virtual washout meant there was a backlog of 139 matches after four days. But there was no need to panic. "In 1982, we had only two clear days out of 13,” he said. “By the end of the first week, we had only played 152 matches.” The 1982 tournament

ended on time with all matches played. With two more days to go to complete the first week of this year’s tournament, 108 matches had been completed. Mr Mills has decided to reduce all first-round men’s doubles matches to the best of three sets instead of the best of five in an effort to reduce the backlog. Mr Jim Thorne, the head groundsman, said the canvas tarpaulins were keeping the courts green and true.

“Even with all this weather, they’re not really getting wet,” he said. “It’s probably more soul destroying for us, the grounds staff, because we’ve worked the 50 weeks for it.” The 8.8. C. said with

only 108 matches played in the first four days, the tournament had gotten off to its worst start in history.

The statistic could not be verified with the Wimbledon museum or other officials. Navratilova took nine minutes more to beat her Japanese opponent than she needed on Wednesday to dispose of her firstround opponent, West Germany’s Claudia Porwik.

Rain interrupted the match for 3 l / 2 hours in the fifth game of the first set. But when the players returned, Navratilova carried on where she had left off.

“I came out ready after the break to finish the set quickly and take the second set,” she said.