Tennis: Graf's superiority tested

Steffi Graf was taken to a deciding set before subduing the threat from rising force in German women's tennis, Anke Huber, to reach the final of the Virginia Slims Championships in New York yesterday. The gap between the two is closing. It was the first time Huber had taken a set from the world No 1 and it took Graf 1hr 46 min to secure the 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 victory. 'It was really close,' Graf said after taking her match record this year to 75-6. She will meet the Spaniard Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, who defeated France's Mary Pierce 6-2, 5-7, 6-2, in the final. In Swansea Britain's Shirli-Ann Siddall saved a match point in the second set before losing 6-3, 6-7, 7-6 to Gabi Coorengel, of the Netherlands, in the final of an LTA satellite tournament.