Upset Helps Fuel Rehe’s Comeback

After losing the first set and trailing Gabriela Sabatini, 4-1, in the second, Stephanie Rehe closed her eyes. She already could see the story line taking shape.

“It was looking like, ‘Rehe’s coming back, but not quite,’ ” she said.

It proved a much different story Thursday at Manhattan Country Club, where Rehe almost lost, but not quite.

Playing only her fourth match in 21 months, Rehe defeated Sabatini, the fifth-ranked player in the world, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4, in the third round of the Virginia Slims of Los Angeles.

“I was just lucky today,” said Rehe, who was not as fortunate in Chicago the night of Nov. 7, 1988, when the car in which she was riding was struck broadside by another car.

Rehe required back surgery to remove bone spurs and parts of her lower lumbar disks. Until last week, she had not played since the accident.

Once ranked as high as No. 13, Rehe is ranked No. 44 in her comeback at 20. Some experts believed her career had ended.

“I had several doctors’ opinions, and very few gave me a chance to come back,” said Rehe, who is suing King Tours, the owners of the tournament in Chicago that provided the car in which she was injured.

This week, Rehe will accept her prize money from the person she is suing, at least indirectly. Jerry Diamond, promoter of the Manhattan Beach event, was part-owner of King Tours in 1988, and gave her a wild card into the Slims tournament.

Rehe’s suit seeks to recoup tennis earnings she lost while sidelined. Diamond said he believes Rehe had a chronic back condition before the accident.

Whatever caused Rehe’s back problems, she looked fit enough to Sabatini, who offered this assessment: “She play unbelievable.”

Sabatini was asked what she thought happened after she was leading, 4-1, in the second.

“I just lost the set,” she said. “I don’t know how.”

Rehe’s confident service returns helped a lot, as did her consistently deep groundstrokes that kept Sabatini on her heels. Sabatini seemed to think Rehe played over her head.

“I would like to see all the matches she has,” Sabatini said. “I don’t know if she can do much better than she did today.”

Rehe’s quarterfinal opponent will be sixth-seeded and ninth-ranked Mary Joe Fernandez, who won her third-round match against Laura Gildemeister, 6-3, 6-2.

Martina Navratilova defeated Catarina Lindqvist, 6-1, 6-1, in 43 minutes under the lights and put up some pretty impressive numbers.

Projecting a semifinal against Zina Garrison, Navratilova is 48-1 against the trio of Lindqvist (13-0), Kathy Rinaldi (6-0) and Garrison (29-1).

Lindqvist won only 23 points in 14 games and won four points in the first five games against the top-seeded Navratilova.

“I had no chance at all,” Lindqvist said.

Navratilova said her quick start was completely by design.

“I didn’t want to mosey on down, I wanted to get out of the blocks fast,” she said. “I just try to worry about what happens on my side of the net.”

Monica Seles complained about her timing being off, but she arrived in the quarterfinals on schedule with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Anne Smith, who was slowed after suffering a pulled leg muscle in the first game of the second set.

Seles will play Amy Frazier, a 3-6, 6-1, 6-1 winner over Nathalie Tauziat, in her third match in three days. It may be a busy week for Seles, who started play Wednesday night and could play five consecutive days if she gets to the final.

Next for Navratilova is 23-year-old Floridian Rinaldi, who is continuing a comeback of her own. Rinaldi burst upon the scene as a 14-year-old French Open quarterfinalist from Stuart, Fla., and was ranked No. 7 in 1986.

After reaching the third round of the 1987 French Open, Rinaldi was visiting Monte Carlo. She slipped on some stairs and suffered a broken right thumb.

Rinaldi hasn’t been the same since. Her ranking slipped to No. 26, then to No. 88. Now ranked No. 70, she defeated Jana Novotna in her third-round match, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Also reaching the quarterfinals were fourth-seeded Garrison and fifth-seeded Katerina Maleeva, who experienced the same degree of difficulty in setting up their meeting today. Garrison defeated Rosalyn Fairbank-Nideffer, 6-2, 6-0, and Maleeva beat Amanda Coetzer, 6-2, 6-0.