Navratilova and Graf Battle Today for No. 1

History meets destiny today when Martina Navratilova reaches for a record-setting sixth consecutive Wimbledon women’s championship against Steffi Graf, who has not lost a match this year.

At stake is the No. 1 ranking in women’s tennis.

Graf had just turned 10 years old when Navratilova won Wimbledon for the first time in 1979. Now she is 18 and widely acknowledged as the sport’s next superstar.

If the West German teen-ager wins on Centre Court, she will have more than the All England Club trophy. A victory also would boost her to No. 1 in the computer rankings, ahead of Navratilova, who has not been topped since November 1985.

In her 45-match winning streak, Graf owns two victories over Navratilova, including the final of the French Open, where Martina double-faulted at match point.

On Wimbledon’s grass, however, Navratilova has won five consecutive championships and seven overall and has her own winning streak of 41 matches.

A victory today would give her six titles in a row, breaking the modern record of five she shares with Bjorn Borg and Suzanne Lenglen. Her eighth championship would tie her with Helen Wills Moody for the most singles crowns at Wimbledon.

Navratilova reached the final with a stirring 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 victory over longtime rival Chris Evert, while Graf advanced with a 6-0, 6-2 wipeout of Pam Shriver.

Navratilova has displayed some vulnerability this year, losing six times--four finals and two semifinals.

Evert said if Navratilova has to depend on her second serve against Graf, she could be in trouble.

“Martina will have to get 80% to 90% of her first serves in to win the match,” she said. “You have to take into consideration that this is Martina’s best surface. She’s going to do the most damage on grass.”

Graf realizes that. While saying that her time to be No. 1 will come, she said she never expected to advance beyond the quarterfinals or semifinals here.

“I thought I’m not that ready yet on grass,” she said. “I think in the future I’m going to be a very good grass player. I enjoy playing on it. Grass is a difficult surface. Right from the beginning, I thought I feel better on it, better than clay. I was moving better, and I enjoyed it.”

If Graf wins, it would be the first time since Evert in 1981 that someone other than Navratilova has won the title.

Seventh-seeded Ken Flach and Robert Seguso beat third-seeded Andres Gomez of Ecuador and Slobodan Zivojinovic of Yugoslavia, 7-6, 2-6, 7-6, 6-4, to reach the men’s doubles final where they will play eighth-seeded Sergio Casal and Emilio Sanchez of Spain.

The Spaniards beat third-seeded Stefan Edberg and Anders Jarryd of Sweden, 6-3, 7-5, 6-2.

In women’s doubles, third-seeded Claudia Kohde-Kilsch of West Germany and Helena Sukova of Czechoslovakia beat Svetlana Parkhomenko and Larissa Savchenko of the Soviet Union, 1-6, 6-4, 7-5, and will meet Betsy Nagelsen and Australia’s Liz Smylie, the No. 5-seeded team, which defeated seventh-seeded Lori McNeil and Robin White, 6-4, 6-7, 6-4.