Notebook

This time, she's serious: Navratilova calling it quits after 2004

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) -- Martina Navratilova suspects she'll never be too far from a tennis court once she retires. And she insists she's finished after this year.

"There is nothing that can change my mind," the 47-year-old tennis great said Friday after advancing to Sunday's mixed doubles final at the Australian Open with partner Leander Paes. "I'm happy with my decision."

Once she leaves, she'd like to continue doing TV work. At Melbourne Park, she's doing duty -- player and commentator.

"I'd love to do TV. I really enjoy it and it's fun," she said. "I think I'm getting better at it."

"But I would like to stay involved on the political side," she said without elaborating. "If I can make a difference there, there are some things that need to be changed on the tour."

Name game

Evonne Goolagong and Chris Evert, among other women tennis players, took or added their husbands' names (Cawley and Lloyd, respectively) when they were married. Cawley has now reverted to Goolagong Cawley and Lloyd dropped her second name after divorcing former British player John Lloyd.

There's no chance of Kim Clijsters becoming Kim Hewitt or Kim Clijsters-Hewitt after she and Lleyton Hewitt, who became engaged before Christmas, tie the knot. "I am proud of my name Clijsters," she said at the Australian Open. "When I marry, my name will not change." Clijsters' father Leo played international soccer for Belgium.

Bad day at the office

Todd Woodbridge has won a record 79 tour doubles titles, but the fact he didn't win No. 80 at the Australian Open had him pointing the finger at tournament organizers for bad scheduling.

Woodbridge and his partner, Sweden's Jonas Bjorkman, played their semifinal -- a 6-1, 6-2 loss to American twins Bob and Mike Bryan -- just 17 hours after their quarterfinal. They complained they had not finished the quarterfinal until shortly after midnight Wednesday, then had to be back for the semi on Thursday afternoon.

"Why the rush for us to have to play today, particularly the way the schedule went last night," said Woodbridge. "Let's give them some credit, they played a very sharp match. But I don't think we were given the best opportunity to play hard at them."

Woodbridge and Bjorkman won the Wimbledon and U.S. Open doubles titles last year and the pair also won the adidas International title in Sydney two weeks ago. The win help Woodbridge break Tom Okker's previous tour doubles record of 78.

Agassi's streak stops

Andre Agassi's Australian Open run of success, stretching over 26 straight matches and three titles, was not something the eight-time Grand Slam champion was thinking too much about after his five-set, semifinal loss to Marat Safin.

"Yeah, I suppose," Agassi, still hurting from the defeat, said when asked if was a source of pride.

Agassi said he approached "each match so separately that you can't win 26 in a row until you win the first one, and second one and so on."

"But, looking back, it's not easy to do that, that's for sure," he added. "I never went into it thinking it was easy, and certainly not coming out of it thinking it was easy."

Agassi's 26-match streak placed him fifth overall in Grand Slam streaks. Bjorn Borg leads the way with 41 straight wins at Wimbledon between 1976 and 1981, followed by Pete Sampras (31 at Wimbledon, 1997-01), Borg again (28 at the French Open, 1978-81) and Ivan Lendl (27 at the U.S. Open, 1985-88).