LONDON, 8 July 2003 — Twenty seven years after winning her first Wimbledon final, Martina Navratilova on Sunday won an age-defying 20th title at the All England Club.

In winning the mixed doubles aged 46 years and 261 days, she equaled the Wimbledon record set by her role model and former playing partner, Billie Jean King, and also beat her own record as the oldest player to win a grand slam final.

The victory with India’s Leander Paes, which came late into the evening on a packed center court at Wimbledon, brings her number of titles at the four large tournaments to 58 - within sight of the 62 held by the Australian Margaret Smith Court.

“I can’t think, I can’t talk,” Navratilova said afterwards. “They’re all special, but the last one was eight years ago and honestly I never thought I’d play here again. The best thing that happened to me was getting dumped by my mixed doubles partner. And Leander - the same thing happened to him. That’s how we got together at the US Open last year, and here we are.”

Navratilova and Paes won the title beating Israel’s Andy Ram and Russia’s Anastassia Rodionova 6-3, 6-3. Czech-born Ms Navratilova, now a naturalized American, won her first Wimbledon title, the women’s doubles, in 1976, with her friend and fellow champion Chris Evert.

Having won her 19th Wimbledon trophy with Jonathan Stark in 1995, Navratilova came out of retirement in 2000 specifically to chase King’s record.

In January she and Paes lifted the mixed doubles trophy at the Australian Open. King won her 20th title at the championships in tandem with Navratilova in 1979.

At Wimbledon Navratilova has won nine singles, seven women’s doubles, and four mixed doubles championships. Pam Shriver, who helped Navratilova to win five of her Wimbledon doubles titles, yesterday said: “Her skills are not quite what they were when she was winning singles titles here, but in doubles she’s not far off.

“She still knows the positions on the doubles court better than anyone out there and she’s feeling as good as she has done since she came back. Athletes like her come around about every 100 years.”

Lesser Lights Win Early as

Gstaad Prepares for Federer

In Gstaad, Switzerland, third seeded former winner Jiri Novak squeezed in a quick opening victory at the 550,000-euro Swiss Open yesterday prior to the expected arrival in town of Wimbledon champion Roger Federer.

Czech Novak quickly advanced into the second round as he ousted Sargis Sargsian of Armenia 6-3, 6-3 on the 1,000-metrer-high clay of this elite alpine village.

Federer, only a day removed from the biggest victory of his life after beating Mark Philippoussis for the title at the All England Club, spent yesterday morning in a media post-mortem in London before flying by private jet to the tournament.

Getting back to competition just days after his Grand Slam victory may not be a problem for the 21-year-old from Basle, who was eagerly anticipating his return home.

“I like playing at Gstaad, they treat me very well up there. I’m happy to be going home.”

Federer has competed at the event for six years, but has never strung together two match wins.

Other seeds took advantage of the lull before the Federer storm to win through on a sunny, warm day.

Fifth-seeded Argentine Juan Chela posted a win over Brazil’s Andre Sa in their first career meeting, taking a 6-0, 6-2 victory.

Young Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu defeated German qualifier Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-3, 6-1; Christophe Rochus of Belgium ousted the first of three Swiss in the field as he beat wild card Michael Lammer 6-3, 7-5.

Seeded second is German Rainer Schuettler, a player who knows the pressure of a big-match performance after playing this year’s Australian Open final against Andre Agassi. Three-time winner and defending champion Alex Corretja gets back to action two weeks after the birth of his daughter, playing as a seventh-seeded wild card.

He and Novak are the only former champions in the field.