Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, July 2, 1990 TAG: 9007020242
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: A-1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WIMBLEDON, ENGLAND LENGTH: Medium
Using powerful forehands, slicing serves and a rock-solid net game, the top-ranked Graf beat her youngest challenger in straight sets today to reach the quarterfinals at Wimbledon.
Graf won 6-2, 6-4 in a Centre Court match eagerly awaited. Refreshed by a quick weekend trip back to West Germany, Graf won the big points and kept Capriati from setting the rhythm.
Capriati, the whiz-kid from Florida who at No. 12 was the youngest seed in Grand Slam history, showed the type of play that has raised her so high in the four months since she turned professional.
She served well, ran down shot after shot and matched Graf's firepower from the baseline. But she rarely came to the net and Graf wrapped it up with her trademark, a forehand flashed down the line and buried in the corner on her third match point.
Also on Centre Court, Boris Becker turned a meeting of champions into a rout and Monica Seles scored a quick and clean victory over an outmatched American to reach the quarterfinals.
Eight-time women's champion Martina Navratilova also won comfortably, making the quarters for the 16th consecutive year. Ivan Lendl had a tougher time before beating another U.S. opponent to reach the fourth round.
Becker, the defending champion and aiming for his fourth Wimbledon title overall, beat 1987 champ Pat Cash 7-6, 6-1, 6-4. Cash was a wild-card entry but had looked strong in the previous three rounds.
Seles, the 16-year-old from Yugoslavia, won her 36th match in a row, taking just 45 minutes to beat Ann Henricksson of Mill Valley, Calif., 6-1, 6-0.
Next for Seles is a stiff test - No. 5 Zina Garrison, who eliminated 10th-seeded Helena Sukova 6-3, 6-3 and has not dropped a set so far.
Navratilova, the women's second seed, registered a 6-3, 6-3 victory over 14th-seeded Judith Wiesner of Austria.
Lendl, the men's top seed, stayed on course to finally end his quest for a Wimbledon title, but he had a tougher time than expected.
He beat Bryan Shelton, a American ranked 125th in the world, 7-6, 6-7, 6-4, 6-4, in match suspended by darkness at one set apiece Saturday night.
In other fourth-round action on an autumn-like day, seventh-seeded Katerina Maleeva defeated Nathalie Herreman of France 6-3, 6-0; 11th-seeded Natalia Zvereva of the Soviet Union beat Brenda Schultz of the Netherlands 6-2, 6-2; 13th-seeded Jana Novotna of Czechoslovakia beat Patty Fendick of the United States 6-2, 6-4; and Goran Ivanisevic of Yugoslavia, an unseeded surprise in the men's field, beat Mark Koevermans of the Netherlands 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6.
It was the start of the second week of the Grand Slam tournament and top-flight matches were scattered all over the grass courts of the All England Club. Fourteen of the 16 fourth-round singles contests were scheduled.
The tournament also got its first heavy shot of British royalty. The Duchess of York, wife of Prince Andrew, was among the guests in the royal box on Centre Court.
Becker, seeded second, continued to show improvement through the match. He had trouble shaking Cash in the first set, winning the tie-breaker 7-3, but from that point he dictated play. Cash wore the same black-and-white checked headband that became his trademark through the championship year, but that was the only similarity between then and now.
Serving eight aces to just one for the Australian, Becker controlled the net and kept Cash back most of the match. Match point fell on an open-court volley, and Becker - who has feuded with Cash in the past - stood at the net and pumped his right fist high over his head in victory.
Seles is by far the hottest player in tennis. She's won six tournaments in a row, including the French Open last month, and hasn't lost a match since mid-March.
That streak never was endangered against Henricksson.
Seles, the women's third seed, won the first five games and, after Henricksson held serve for 5-1, ran off the last seven in a row, winning her last two service games at love.
She never faced a break point, losing no more than two points in any game other than the one Henricksson won, and never wasted a break point, converting all on the first try.
A clay-court powerhouse with the hardest ground strokes in the women's game, Seles appeared to be adapting her style to Wimbledon. For one thing, her grunts - a loud "aaaah-YEEEE" in Paris - have been toned down. For another, she's using her volley to good advantage.
Seles approached the net only six times against Henricksson but she won all of those points, including match point with a backhand volley.
"I was surprised how well she played on grass," Henricksson said. Seles said this was one of her best grass-court matches but that she could improve, especially on her serve.
by CNB