Tennis Roundup : Navratilova Gives Away Racket but Not Match

Martina Navratilova showed Sunday that her game hasn’t softened much, but her approach to playing Natalia Zvereva has lightened considerably.

Navratilova was not only full of praise for Zvereva after beating her 6-7, 6-4, 6-3 in the final of the New England Virginia Slims championship, but the American also gave her Soviet opponent one of her new “wide body” rackets and Zvereva used the racket against Navratilova.

“That’s one of the best matches I’ve ever been part of,” said Navratilova, who won the first four games of the second set after losing the first-set tiebreaker, 7-4, in the 2-hour 19-minute match at Worcester, Mass.

“I enjoyed the match, it was such great competition,” Navratilova added. “If I was going to lose, I was going to enjoy her shots. . . . I played close to my best but she rushes you, doesn’t give you time to get set up. She’s got me on a Yo-Yo with that slice service.”

John McEnroe easily beat injured Soviet Andrei Chesnokov, 6-1, 7-5, 6-2, in the final of the $1-million European Community Championship at Antwerp Belgium.

Chesnokov hurt his right ankle early in the second set of the exhibition event.

“I said I cannot play anymore, but he said ‘you must play,’ ” said Chesnokov, who refused to say who pressured him.

Boris Becker, who had considered withdrawing because of a sprained left ankle he injured in a semifinal, whipped Peter Lundgren of Sweden, 6-4, 6-1, 6-1, to win the final of the Scandinavian championships at Stockholm.

Becker was never broken in his last two matches.