Navratilova, Courier, Graf turn on the heat

NEW YORK Four-time champion Martina Navratilova fought throughstifling heat and humidity to advance to the third round of the U.S.Open today with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over former NCAA singles championDebbie Graham.

Navratilova, seeded No. 6, dominated the first set beforetrading breaks with Graham to prolong the second against theex-Stanford player.

Earlier, French Open champion Jim Courier, his shirt soaked bythe punishing 90-degree temperatures, eliminated Jimmy Arias 6-3,6-2, 6-0. The fourth-seeded Courier, his eyes shaded by a baseballcap, needed 1 hour, 39 minutes for the victory, exactly one hourlonger than Wimbledon champion Steffi Graf took in a 6-0, 6-0 rout ofCatherine Mothes.

The heat forced Christian Bergstrom of Sweden to retire in thethird set of his match with Arnaud Boetsch of France. Bergstrom wastrailing 2-1 after losing the first two, 6-2, 6-3 when he wasovercome by the heat.

Graf's victory marked the first match of the tournament in whichthe winner did not drop at least one game. She was at the top of herform against the 21-year-old French player, who was making her debutat the Open this year.

"I told myself to concentrate on every single point and see howit goes," Graf said. "The thing is, she didn't really have thestrokes to make the points."

Later, top-seeded Boris Becker went against Alexander Volkov onthe stadium court. No. 11 David Wheaton went against Horst Skoff anddefending champion Pete Sampras, seeded No. 6, faced Wayne Ferreira.

In night matches, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, No. 4, was scheduledagainst Kristin Godridge as a prelim to another center stage show forJimmy Connors. Two nights ago, Connors electrified the tournamentwith a five-set comeback victory over Patrick McEnroe.

A year ago, Graf was the defending champion here and hogged theattention along with the soap opera adventures of Monica and Martinaand Jennifer. That allowed Gabriela Sabatini to sort of sneak up onthe U.S. Open.