Tennis : Yannick Noah May Be What McEnroe Needs

There’s trouble brewing in men’s tennis these days. Big trouble.

At 32, Jimmy Connors is beginning to show the wear of 12 years on the professional tour. Ivan Lendl keeps trying out new ideas--new diets, new serve-and-volley strategies--and keeps spinning his wheels at No. 2. The young Swedes, although impressive as a unit, are not even close to approaching Borgian heights as individuals.

Atop the Assn. of Tennis Professionals computer rankings, McEnroe reigns supreme. Never before has No. 1 been so firmly entrenched. The challengers have scattered in retreat and men’s tennis is in danger of becoming the totalitarian state that plagues women’s tennis--otherwise known as Martina and a cast of thousands.

Is there any hope?

Well, maybe.

The name is familiar, even if the face no longer is. Yannick Noah. The reggae tennis player with the rock-and-roll tennis game. An NBA power forward in tennis shorts. The 1983 French Open champion. The man who hits winning passing shots from between his legs.

If McEnroe is tennis’ finest shotmaker and technician, Noah, unquestionably, is its finest athlete. Tall enough to obliterate all but the perfectly executed lob, strong enough to overwhelm opponents from the service line and agile enough to run down most passing shots, Noah is the all-courts player personified.

When all is right with him mentally and physically, Noah is capable of raising his level of play to that of Mister McEnroe’s neighborhood.

But all too often in Noah’s brief pro career, all has not been right.

The pressures of unfulfilled potential--at least in the eyes of the exacting French media--and the demands of celebrity status bore down hard on Noah’s psyche, prompting him to leave his home in Paris last spring to take up residence in New York City.

For a while, that appeared to work. He began 1984 relaxed and playing with confidence.

Then he had a severe muscle pull in the groin area that knocked him off the tour for six months and, for a while, threatened his tennis future.

So serious was the injury that surgery was considered. Finally, Noah decided to go it on his own--beginning a painful and tedious rehabilitation process in October.

Now, the comeback is approaching completion. At this month’s AT&T; Challenge of Champions exhibition event in Las Vegas, Noah gave proof of that--acing Lendl 18 times in an upset victory during round-robin play.

“I’m about up to 75%,”Noah said in Las Vegas. “I started practicing two months ago, but I don’t think I can just work like that anymore. I need to start playing matches, being under that pressure again. This is good for me.”

Excluding an ill-fated entry into the Grand Prix de Toulouse in France in December, the Las Vegas matches were Noah’s first since the injury. Noah admitted that Toulouse was a mistake--too much too soon--but impatience had won out over inactivity.

“There was a lot of frustration, seeing the other players playing and winning, going ahead of you in the rankings and seeing your ranking go down,” Noah said. “And, there’s nothing you can do except watch.”

So, Noah decided to test the injury at Toulouse. He flunked. The pain was still there.

He backed off, returning to his stretching-and-drilling regimen and tried to stave off the boredom.

“I want to make sure it’s not going to be injured again,” Noah said. “I don’t think I can ever go through that again. Sometimes, I’m even surprised I did it once.”

Total recovery still remains. Noah says his reflexes and anticipation are not up to par yet. “But I think they’re going to come back,” he said.

If and when they do, men’s tennis may finally again have a threat to the throne. McEnroe, who openly longs for someone, anyone, to come along and press him, has more than once described Noah’s injury setback as very disappointing.

Much is riding on Noah’s comeback. McEnroe--and, more significantly, the sport itself--needs such a challenger.