La Costa Tennis : Nagelsen’s the Name, Doubles Is Her Game

You can lay out the maps, fine-line the blueprints, ask for second opinions and sketch it all out on the blackboard and still the best-laid plans often get laid to waste.

Consider what the creators of the $500,000 Chrysler Women’s Team Tennis Championships had in mind:

Sixteen of the world’s finest female tennis players would come to Southern California to compete in a three-day exhibition doubles tournament. They would come because of the prize money ($275,000 to the winning team), because of the setting (the ritzy La Costa Hotel and Spa) and because of all that golden sunshine.

Sure enough, they did come. Martina Navratilova showed up. So did Hana Mandlikova, Pam Shriver . . . even that old doubles master, Billie Jean King. Things were progressing just as planned.

Then, the tournament started.

On the first day, Navratilova lost.

On the second day, it hailed.

And on the third day, Betsy Nagelsen became a star.

Somewhere along the line, something got lost in the translation.

Sunday afternoon, while Navratilova was grinding out two matches in the consolation bracket and while King was going home winless, Nagelsen was becoming richer and--for a few moments, anyway--more famous than she had ever been before. Together with teammate Wendy Turnbull, Nagelsen outlasted everyone else in the tournament, clinching the championship with a 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 victory over Mandlikova and Rosalyn Fairbank.

In the consolation final, Navratilova and Candy Reynolds defeated Pam Shriver and JoAnne Russell, 7-5, 3-6, 6-2.

Adding to the unlikelihood of Nagelsen’s achievement, the 28-year-old touring pro at Maui’s Kapalua Bay Resort also:

--Had to do everything but send out a resume just to get into the tournament. “I called up Wendy on the phone,” Nagelsen said, “and begged her to pick me.”

--Had to play six sets of tennis, including two third-set tiebreakers, in less than eight hours to win the title. Sunday morning, Nagelsen and Turnbull edged Kathy Jordan and Alycia Moulton in a rain-makeup semifinal, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6.

--Had to rally from a 2-5 deficit in the third set of the final, saving two match points and serving out the winner in an 8-6 tiebreaker.

No doubt, Turnbull, the world’s fifth-ranked women’s player and a veteran doubles champion, made a contribution. Her quickness and her consistency helped right a ship that seemed critically damaged more than once.

But, clearly, this was Nagelsen’s hour.

“Betsy won the match for them,” Mandlikova said. “She played out of her mind. She never does that.”

Echoed Fairbank: “Wendy played well, but Betsy was unbelievable. I’m serving for the match (at 5-3 in the third set)--and I didn’t hit a bad serve--but she came up with some unbelievable volleys. We’d hit a good shot and she’d always come up with something better.”

In that game, Fairbank served for the match twice. On Match Point No. 1, Nagelsen hit a deep forehand down the middle that split Mandlikova and Fairbank for a winner. On Match Point No. 2, Nagelsen crushed an overhead that forced another deuce.

Then, Nagelsen pulled out the game with a perfect backhand lob, pulling her team to 5-4.

Turnbull and Nagelsen eventually assumed the lead at 6-5 before Nagelsen faltered slightly and failed to hold serve.

She made amends in the tiebreaker.

With the score 7-6, Nagelsen got in her second serve, approached the net and hit a backhand lob that just cleared the heads of both Mandlikova and Fairbank. All they could do is look up and watch the ball--as well as the championship--bounce away.

“It was a great shot, directly down the middle,” Fairbank said. “I thought it was Hana’s ball and Hana thought it was mine. It was hit so well, neither of us could get it.”

Nagelsen is new to this hero gig and spent most of the postmatch press conference complimenting Turnbull’s play (“With Wendy out there, never once did I feel like I was getting slapped around”) and thanking Turnbull for picking her as a partner.

When someone asked both players how the pressure for playing for a huge payoff ($137,500 per player) compared with the pressure of playing a Grand Slam tournament final, Nagelsen was at a loss. “I’ve never done that,” she said, “so I can’t answer that.”

Nagelsen’s success as a professional singles player is scant, but she has built a pretty fair reputation in doubles. She won doubles titles at Wimbledon (1978) and the Australian Open (1979-80) and teamed with Butch Walts last November to win the World Mixed Doubles Championships in Houston.

Turnbull was aware of that reputation when she got her turn to draft a partner for the La Costa event.

“I’ve been thinking about who I was going to pick when Betsy called me,” Turnbull said. “I knew she was a great doubles player. She won the Ginny championship (in Florida) the week before and she won the mixed doubles in Houston. I thought we’d have a chance to win here.”

As it turns out, Nagelsen and Turnbull had more than a chance. They won the entire tournament and maybe formed a new alliance in the process.

Nagelsen, at least, is hoping for a reunion.

“I’d like to play together again. Next year. Here,” Nagelsen said. Then she grinned and turned toward her partner.

“Wendy, please. “