Navratilova marks her supremacy

Press, 4 July 1983, Page 36

Navratilova marks her supremacy

NZPA-Reuter London Martina Navratilova quelled a late rally by Andrea Jaeger and stamped her supremacy on women’s tennis by retaining the Wimbledon singles title with a 6-0, 6-3, triumph at Wimbledon yesterday morning. The 26-year-old Pragueborn American raced through the first set in 15 minutes by losing just nine points and had the trophy in her possession after 54 minutes for the fourth time in six years. She won it previously in 1978 and 1979. Her victory left little doubt in anyone’s mind —

and absolutely none in her own — that she is the world’s best woman player now, but she dispelled the notion she was harmful to the game and was not inclined to apologise for her success.

“Is there any doubt in anyone’s mind that I’m the best right now?” she asked with a smile. “I don’t think it does any damage to the game if I’m better than the others. If it does, I’m sorry, but I’m not going to stop playing.” Her only real challenger is her fellow American, Chris Evert Lloyd, who came to Wimbledon bidding to hold all four Grand Slam titles after taking the United States, Australian and French Opens. Navratilova’s only losses in the last year were in those events and she and Lloyd were joint favourites at Wimbledon, but Lloyd was upset in the third round by her compatriot, Kathy Jordan. “I wanted to be the one to stop her, but someone else did,” Navratilova said. Perhaps she will get her chance in this year’s United States Open, which Navratilova has never won and which Lloyd won last year for the sixth time.

Navratilova has lost just

25 games at Wimbledon in seven matches, nine in a 7-6, 6-3, second win over an American Sherry Acker. But she lost no more than four in any other and three or less in five out of seven. She has won 49 out of 50 matches this year and 139 out of 143 over the last 18 months. Her only defeat this year was to an American, Kathy Horvath, in the fourth round of the French Open. She is the first woman to win Wimbledon without the loss of a set since Billie Jean King took the second of her six titles in 1967. John McEnroe, meanwhile, warmed up for his singles final match against Chris Lewis by winning the men’s doubles title with Peter Fleming. McEnroe and Fleming, the top seeds, regained the title they won in 1979 and 1981 by beating another allAmerican pair, the twins Tim and Tom Gullikson, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4, in one hour 48 minutes.

McEnroe’s outstanding play and the vulnerable service of the left-handed Tom Gullikson were the features of the match. There was one break per set, and each time it was Tom Gullikson’s serve that fell. The Gulliksons were the first twins to appear in the men’s doubles final at Wimbledon since a British pair, Herbert and Wilfred Baddeley in 1897. Navratilova, winner of the singles earlier in the day, went on to retain the women’s doubles title with Pam Shriver, the American pair beating Rosie Casals, of the United States, and Australia’s Wendy Turnbull, 6-2, 6-2, in 49 minutes.

Casals, aged 34, a fivetimes winner of the title with Billie Jean King between 1967 and 1973, had an unhappy afternoon, her serve continually falling prey to the top seeds.