Tennis / Mike Penner : USC, UCLA Teams to Mix It Up Just for Fun

A different kind of USC-UCLA encounter will be held next Saturday at 2 p.m. at the L.A. Tennis Center.

This one will be played for fun. Imagine that. Yep, fun--complete with social gatherings for both teams before and after the competition, a little friendly mingling between Trojans and Bruins at the buffet table.

Sound impossible? Well, that’s the plan when USC and UCLA meet in the first-ever mixed tennis match between the schools.

“This is something new for the guys and the gals,” said UCLA men’s tennis Coach Glenn Bassett. “It’s not a real pressurized situation--it’s a fun type of thing.

“There’s enough intensity between the schools. This is a chance for the players to enjoy themselves. We all thought it’d be a nice idea.”

This mixed match may be new for USC and UCLA, but it is hardly a new idea. The concept was borrowed from Stanford and Cal, who borrowed it from Billie Jean King’s Team Tennis league.

“Stanford and Cal have been doing it for three or four years and they liked it,” Bassett said. “And, the fans like it. It’s a simple format, but it’s different.”

Basically, the match will go according to Team Tennis rules. The schools will play five sets under five different formats--men’s singles and doubles, women’s singles and doubles, and mixed doubles. Score will be kept according to games won.

Lineups have yet to be announced, but the potential matchups are interesting. UCLA has the nation’s No. 1-ranked men’s team. USC is top-rated in the women’s division. Among the featured players: Men--USC’s Todd Witsken (No. 4) and Jorge Lozano (No. 17), UCLA’s Michael Kures (No. 5) and Jeff Klaparda (No. 9); Women--USC’s Heliane Steden (No. 5) and UCLA’s Joni Urban (No. 13).

The schools are planning on making this a tradition. A perpetual trophy has already been procured.

“We’re hoping that it becomes a classic after a while,” Bassett said.

For its 20th anniversary edition, Tennis magazine enlisted a panel of seven tennis journalists--representing six countries--to select the top 20 men’s tennis players of the past two decades.

Its choice for No. 1 was hardly surprising. Debatable, maybe, but not surprising.

The panel went with Super Swede, Bjorn Borg--he of the five straight Wimbledon championships, six French Open titles, relentless forehand and glacier-like poise under pressure.

The rest of the top 20:

2. Jimmy Connors; 3. John McEnroe; 4. John Newcombe; 5. Rod Laver; 6. Ken Rosewall; 7. Arthur Ashe; 8. Roy Emerson; 9. Ilie Nastase; 10. Guillermo Vilas; 11. Stan Smith; 12. Jan Kodes; 13. Ivan Lendl; 14. Tony Roche; 15. Fred Stolle; 16. Manuel Santana; 17. Mats Wilander; 18. Manuel Orantes; 19. Vitas Gerulaitis; 20. Andres Gimeno.

Comments:

--McEnroe at No. 3? With all due respect to Connors and his unequalled tenacity, McEnroe deserves to be rated higher than third on any all-time list--covering 20 years, 50 years, 100 years, whatever. He may well be the best ever to lace up the sneakers.

--Lendl at No. 13, behind Jan Kodes? Sure, Kodes won two French Opens and one Wimbledon, but his Wimbledon victory came in 1973 when many top players went on strike. And, sure, Lendl has a reputation as a choker, but he’s been correcting that lately. His 44-match winning streak in 1981-82 is Hall of Fame material.

--How this writer’s top five would’ve gone: 1. McEnroe; 2. Borg; 3. Laver; 4. Connors; 5. Newcombe.