Helena Sukova

Steffi Graf of West Germany breezed past Helena Sukova of Czechoslovakia, 6-2, 6-1, and Chris Evert defeated Jana Novotna of Czechoslovakia, 7-5, 6-1, Saturday to reach the final of a $300,000 Virginia Slims tennis tournament. Graf, the world's No. 1-ranked woman player, yielded only five points in eight service games to beat the fourth-seeded Sukova in 54 minutes.

Unseeded Terry Phelps upset second-seeded Gabriela Sabatini of Argentina in straight sets Thursday in the second round of a $300,000 women's tennis tournament. Phelps, ranked 45th in the world, easily won the first set, 6-2, then held on to win a tiebreaker in the second set to spoil Sabatini's rally. Phelps, 22, of Larchmont, N.Y.

Top-seeded Martina Navratilova and fourth-seeded Manuela Maleeva both won second-round matches Friday night to advance to the quarterfinals of the $150,000 Virginia Slims of Washington tennis tournament. Navratilova, the top-ranked women's player in the world, easily defeated Carling Bassett of Canada, 6-1, 6-1. Bassett, ranked 10th, started the match by losing her serve at love and was broken three times in the first set.

Martina Navratilova, seeking a record sixth consecutive Wimbledon title and an end to a disappointing year, took just 32 minutes to defeat Claudia Porwik of West Germany 6-1, 6-0 in a first-round match on Center Court today. Second-seeded Steffi Graf of West Germany, fresh from beating Navratilova in the French Open, defeated Adriana Villagran of Argentina 6-0, 6-2.

The United States took its time but won its first gold medal in Olympic tennis since Paris in 1924 and the good old days of Helen Wills Moody here Friday, when Pam Shriver and Zina Garrison defeated Jana Novotna and Helena Sukova of Czechoslovakia, 4-6, 6-2, 10-8. Shriver and Garrison finally broke Sukova's serve to go up 9-8, and then Garrison served out the match, but not easily.

So it wasn't a total loss for Helena Sukova after all. Sukova, swept by Steffi Graf in the women's singles final earlier Saturday, teamed with Arantxa Sanchez Vicario to upset the top-seeded team of Gigi Fernandez and Natalia Zvereva, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4, in the women's doubles semifinals under the lights. Fernandez and Zvereva were attempting to win the Grand Slam in women's doubles, but instead saw the No.

Top-seeded Martina Navratilova set up a grudge match with Czechoslovakia's Helena Sukova by beating Australia's Wendy Turnbull, 6-4, 6-2, Friday in the quarterfinals of the $150,000 New South Wales Open at Sydney, Australia. The sixth-seeded Sukova defeated Australia's Dianne Balestrat, 6-1, 6-4, in her quarterfinal match. Sukova upset Navratilova in last year's Australian Open, depriving her of the calendar-year Grand Slam she had so coveted.

Top-seeded Ivan Lendl defeated Switzerland's Jakob Hlasek in straight sets Friday night and moved into an all-Czechoslovak semifinal today against Miloslav Mecir in the $385,000 Fila Trophy indoor tennis tournament at Milan, Italy. Lendl defeated the seventh-seeded Hlasek, 6-3, 6-4, in 1 hour and 27 minutes. Mecir beat Sergio Casal of Spain, 6-1, 6-2.

Steffi Graf and Gabriela Sabatini, last year's finalists, took divergent routes into the U.S. Open semifinals today. Graf, the top seed and defending champion, needed only 44 minutes to rout No. 8 Helena Sukova, 6-1, 6-1. It was the 11th straight victory over Sukova for Graf, winner of six of the last seven Grand Slam events. Sabatini, seeded third, and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario went more than 44 minutes in the first set alone.

Local tennis fans will get their first up-close-and-personal look at the latest teen-age star when Martina Hingis appears at her first Southern California tournament, the $450,000 Toshiba Tennis Classic at La Costa. Hingis, 16, has had the dominating kind of year once turned in by the likes of Steffi Graf, Monica Seles and Martina Navratilova. With her straight-set victory against Conchita Martinez on Sunday in the final at Palo Alto, Hingis is 50-1 in 1997.