Navratilova and Raymond Shine in Doubles Win

Tennis legend Martina Navratilova and fellow American Lisa Raymond once again delighted a large Stadium Court crowd at the Acura Classic as they scored a 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-4, victory over eighth-seeded Eleni Daniilidou of Greece and South Africa’s Liezel Huber.

The quarterfinal victory sends Navratilova and Raymond, the number four seeds, into Saturday’s doubles semifinals. They will face Cara Black of Zimbabwe and Australia’s Rennae Stubbs.

Black and Stubbs, who are seeded second, are the 2004 Wimbledon champions.

After winning the first set, Navratilova and Raymond fell behind 5-1 in the second set, but with the crowd cheering them on, they roared back to tied the set at 5-5.

Daniilidou and Huber, who defeated Amelie Mauresmo and Mary Pierce in the first round, eventually won the set in a tiebreaker to force a third set.

In the third-set, both teams exchanged service breaks late in the set. At 4-5, Huber served to stay in the match, but Raymond and Navratilova broke serve at love to win the match in two hours and five minutes.

Navratilova’s play highlighted the match as she hit several spectacular winners during the deciding third set.

On one point, Daniilidou hit a high lob over the tennis legend, who ran back and turned around to hit a forehand down the line for a winner.

This may very well be Navratilova’s last Acura Classic appearance as she has indicated that this will be her last year on the tour.

• Navratilova and Raymond are scheduled to play in the Olympic Games in Athens, Greece in August.
• In their first-round match, Navratilova and Raymond defeated the Argentine duo of Gisela Dulko and Patricia Tarabini, 6-3, 6-4.
• Navratilova and Raymond have combined for a 27-12 record in doubles this year.
• In May, Navratilova and Raymond won the doubles title at the WTA Tour event in Vienna, Austria.
• Navratilova has won 174 career WTA Tour doubles titles.
  

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