Garrison withdraws

Press, 6 April 1989, Page 29

Garrison withdraws

NZPA-Reuter Hilton Head Island, South Carolina The top seed, Steffi Graf, coasted through her secondround match while the No. 2 seed, Martina Navratilova, struggled yesterday in a women’s tennis tournament. Graf, seeking her third title in South Carolina, had trouble adjusting her powerful groundstrokes to the slow clay court but the West German still defeated South African Ros Fairbank 6-4, 6-3. Navratilova, the defending champion and three-time winner, had her hands full with Laura Gildemeister, of Peru, in the first two sets before triumphing 6-4, 4-6, 60. The third seed, Zina Garrison, of the United States,

withdrew because of a groin pull which she suffered last week, She was replaced by Andrea Holikova, of Czechoslovakia. the highest ranked loser from the qualifying rounds. The fourth seed, Natalia Zvereva, of the Soviet Union, and the seventh seed, Arantxa Sanchez, of Spain, were easy second-round winners, while Jana Pospisilova, of Czechoslovakia, upset the No. 12 seed. Raffaella Reggi, of Italy, 7-5, 6-4. Gildemeister. who recently returned to competition after a year of maternity leave, dropped the first set on one service break but broke Navratilova with a backhand passing shot at 5-4 in the second set to pull even. Navratilova, ranked No. 2

in the world behind Graf, used her attacking game in the final set to rout the persistent Gildemeister with six consecutive games in 22 minutes. Navratilova said that she had difficulty adjusting to the clay courts, playing on the surface for the first time this year. "I played one bad set, one good set and one medium set.” the American said. "At least. I left the best for last. I was a little nervous being on the clay the first time and not having played for five weeks." Graf agreed, commenting: “On clay it’s a bit tougher when you start out. I am a clay court player, but it still takes time to get used to a different surface."