Zina Garrison snapped Monica Seles' winning streak at 36 matches today and advanced to the Wimbledon semifinals with top-seeded Steffi Graf, who survived a scare.
Garrison, the fifth seed but overlooked by most when it came to naming the contenders for Graf's crown, beat the third-seeded, 16-year-old Seles 3-6, 6-3, 9-7.The victory secured Garrison's fourth berth in a Grand Slam semifinal and her second at Wimbledon. She also reached this stage in 1985. But it wiped out the chance of another big matchup between Seles and Graf, who had lost to the Yugoslav teen-ager the last two times they met, in the finals of the German and French Opens.
Graf made it to the semifinals of her 15th consecutive Grand Slam tournament with a 7-5, 6-2 victory over Jana Novotna of Czechoslovakia.
"This match was so close, it was difficult to be out there for three hours and just to lose it on a few points," Seles said. "She had more luck out there today."
Seles' loss disappointed Graf.
"I was hoping to play against her badly," Graf said of her teen-age tormentor. "If Zina's playing well, it's hard because she is coming in and playing a lot of slice."
Martina Navratilova, seeking a record ninth Wimbledon singles title, became the old tournament's winningest player with a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Katerina Maleeva. It was Navratilova's 97th singles victory, one more than Chris Evert compiled in 18 Wimbledons.
"If you play long enough and play well enough, you break some records," Navratilova said.
In the men's draw, the quarterfinal field was being completed, and unseeded Brad Pearce of the United States won a spot with a 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 victory over Mark Woodforde of Australia.
Garrison, a 26-year-old from Houston, has had a good year, despite a first-round loss at the French Open. She won a grass-court warmup tournament in Birmingham, England, last month and then declared: "Maybe I can win Wimbledon."
Not many took her seriously, even fewer when the Wimbledon draw put her in the same half as Graf, Seles and 14-year-old challenger Jennifer Capriati.
But Graf beat Capriati on Monday and, 24 hours later, Garrison beat Seles. The woman who ended Chris Evert's Grand Slam career in the U.S. Open quarterfinals last year had done it again, a big win over a big favorite in an important match.
Seles had a match point on Garrison's serve, at 30-40 in the 14th game of the final set, just after the American slipped and hurt her right thigh while chasing a backhand into her forehand corner. She got up slowly and in some pain but waved off an umpire's offer of an injury time out.
"I didn't want to give her momentum," Garrison said.
Garrison saved that match point with a forehand drive, then won 10 of the next 11 points, breaking Seles at 15 on a netted forehand for an 8-7 lead and closing the match at love on a backhand into the net, a backhand dropshot, a service winner and a backhand long off a big Garrison forehand.
"I was pretty surprised," Seles said of the final shot. "I kind of don't remember it. I don't remember exactly where it went."
Garrison let out a yell and pumped her fist in triumph. She beat Seles by attacking, and used dropshots beautifully throughout her comeback in the 2-hour, 22-minute match that attracted a capacity crowd of 6,000 and, for a few minutes, Navratilova, who was waiting to go on once Graf was finished next door on Centre Court.
Graf took 1:13 to eliminate Novotna, the 13th seed, starting her match an hour after Seles-Garrison and having to wait around to find out who she met next.
She was broken in the opening game of the match, but tied it 3-3 when a Novotna volley behind her serve flew too long. Games went with serve until Graf reached 6-5, and she took the set on her third set point when Novotna volleyed out again.
In the second set, Graf hit a backhand retur down the line to break for 2-0, and she broke again in the sixth game when the Czech volleyed into the net. Novotna broke back for 5-2, but a Graf forehand past the Czech brought victory on her third match point in the next game.
The last time Garrison and Seles had played was in last year's French Open, where Seles handed out flowers to the crowd but was rebuffed angrily when she offered a flower to Garrison. Seles then won 6-3, 6-2.
But that was on clay and Garrison entered today's match saying she would take advantage of her grass-court ability by attacking the net as often as possible.
It didn't work out that way in the opening set, the first set Garrison had lost in the tournament. Garrison was passed whenever she tried to rush the net and retreated to the baseline, where Seles waited for the American to make errors. Several short returns by Garrison were put away for winners by Seles.
Seles sent passing shots down both lines, returning some balls that Garrison thought were winners. "I don't believe that," Garrison said as one Seles passing shot landed just inside the line.
Forced into long rallies, Garrison began having success in the second set with dropshots. She scored the only service break of the second set in the fourth game to go up 3-1 and then held serve the rest of the way, fighting off four break points.
Garrison's serve deserted her in the third set, but Seles was having just as much difficulty on her serve. Seles lost her first three service games of the set, winning only two points in those three games, but then rebounded to score her third service break of the set in the eighth game to tie the score at 4-4 and set up the ensuing drama.
Graf defeated Capriati in a Centre Court battle for the future of women's tennis Monday, then was asked once again what it feels like to play a youngster.
"It's just weird," said the top seed and two-time defending champion, who turned 21 in June.
Navratilova does feel old. She says it's important to have easy matches to give her body a chance to recover.
So the 33-year-old, the second seed, spent only 53 minutes defeating Judith Wiesner on Monday. In the process, she tied Chris Evert's record for the most Wimbledon victories (96) and made the quarterfinals for a record 16th consecutive time.
While the women were waging a battle of generations, the men were regaining a semblance of sanity in a draw devastated by upsets.
Top seed Ivan Lendl defeated Bryan Shelton in the continuation of a third-round match suspended Saturday by darkness and second-seed Boris Becker ousted 1987 champion Pat Cash in straight sets.
Lendl defeated Shelton 7-6, 6-7, 6-4, 6-4 in the completion of a third-round match halted Saturday by darkness after two sets.
Becker, the defending champion, overcame Cash in a first-set tie-breaker and then swept past him 6-1, 6-4 in the final two sets.
Third-seeded Stefan Edberg gained a measure of revenge against 13th-seeded Michael Chang to join Becker in the quarterfinals. Also advancing to the final eight was seventh-seeded Brad Gilbert, who struggled past American compatriot David Wheaton 6-7, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, 13-11.
Edberg, the 1988 Wimbledon champion, beat Chang 6-3, 6-2, 6-1 in their first encounter since the 1989 French Open final, which Chang won in five exhausting sets.