Navratilova Makes It 27 Wins in a Row Against Pam Shriver

NEW YORK —  Pam Shriver is now 0 for nine against Martina Navratilova . . . 0 for nine years.

Shriver, who hasn’t beaten Navratilova since 1982, lost her 27th consecutive match to her former doubles partner, 7-5, 6-1, Saturday in the third round of the U.S. Open.

“How many times can I keep beating her?” Navratilova asked. “I didn’t think about the fact that she hasn’t beaten me in nine years.”

Shriver, who has won just five sets from Navratilova in those 27 matches, came back from 1-5 in the second set to catch up at 5-5 but could get no further.

“I want to find out if my confidence is going to come back or it’s gone,” Shriver said. “Right now, I don’t know.”

Top-seeded Steffi Graf also won in straight sets, but not without experiencing similar difficulty. Graf held a match point at 5-0 in the second set against Eva Sviglerova of Czechoslovakia, blew five other match points, but held on for a 6-4, 7-5 victory.

“Well, I think the match was kind of over by that time, which it wasn’t,” Graf said of her second-set lapse. “I lost the concentration. That is how it happened.”

Fourth-seeded Arantxa Sanchez Vicario and eighth-seeded Conchita Martinez moved into the fourth round with straight-set victories. Zina Garrison, seeded 12th, outlasted Barbara Rittner, 6-2, 3-6, 6-4, and will play Martinez in the fourth round.