Shriver, on Her Own, Beats Fendick, 6-2, 6-3

While Martina Navratilova stays home with a pinched nerve, her doubles partner, Pam Shriver, is concentrating on singles only for a change. Tuesday night, Shriver defeated Patty Fendick, 6-2, 6-3, to advance in the $250,000 Virginia Slims of Los Angeles tennis tournament at the Manhattan Country Club in Manhattan Beach.

Shriver is seeded No. 2 in this tournament, behind Hana Mandlikova. Asked if she remembered the last tournament both Navratilova and Chris Evert Lloyd missed, Shriver quipped: “Yeah. The last three I won.”

Shriver was not exactly rejoicing that Navratilova had to skip this stop on the tour. After all, she and Navratilova are as close to unbeatable as a team can be. Together, they won 109 straight doubles titles before losing at Wimbledon this year. They had won an incredible eight straight grand slams.

That kind of success can get to be habit-forming.

“I had mixed emotions when I heard that she would not be here,” Shriver said. “It’s sad to lose a doubles partner. But it makes the field wide open.

“With seven of the top 10 players here, it is more competitive. To a pure tennis fan, it’s good. If you just wanted to come out to see the best . . . it’s a disappointment.”

Shriver had a little more trouble with Fendick than she had when they met at Wimbledon two years ago. “I think she has improved more than I have,” Shriver said, “but that would figure (since Shriver is older and more established). I think she got two more games off me this time.”

Shriver assessed her own game Tuesday night as “first-roundish, not bad, nothing great.” She said that she was not used to the twilight, which makes the ball more difficult to see.

“Maybe if I had played doubles, we would have had a game last night, and I could have gotten used to it,” she said. “At one point I made a total mess of an overhead. I don’t usually do that.”

Shriver is making a strong comeback after taking a three-month layoff because of a recurring problem with her right shoulder.

This is her 10th tournament since coming back. She won the Australian Indoor, the Melbourne, and Birmingham (the noted three tournaments that did not include Navratilova or Lloyd). And she reached the finals at Newport, R.I., where she lost to Lloyd.

After her match Tuesday night, she strapped an ice pack onto her shoulder but said it was just force of habit. She had no real complaints about the shoulder, saying, “It’s a problem I have learned to live with.”

In the other match featured in the evening session, Zina Garrison, who is seeded No. 4, raced through a convincing 6-2, 6-3 victory over Rene Uys of South Africa.

Garrison was ranked No. 5 in the world after making it to the semifinals at Wimbledon, where she had her best showing against Navratilova, losing, 6-4, 7-5. She dropped to No. 7 in the rankings because she did not play at Newport. But with her runner-up finish at the U.S. Open Clay Court championships, she will most likely break back into the top five.

Mandlikova, who is ranked No. 3 in the world and who is the top-seeded player in this tournament, will play tonight at 7 p.m. in a second-round match against Debbie Spence of Cerritos.

Mandlikova has defeated both Navratilova and Lloyd this season. She and Wendy Turnbull defeated Carling Bassett and Sylvia Hanika in doubles Monday night.