Like Fire and Ice, McEnroe and Wilander Win and Clash at Open

East met West, and cultures clashed at the U.S. Open Saturday, not on the tennis court but in the interview room, where John McEnroe tried his best to embroil Mats Wilander in that old American favorite, controversy.

The topic on the floor was No. 1--the importance of being No. 1 and the proper way to get there.

“He’s trying to do the back-door play--sneak in the back door,” the top-seeded McEnroe said of Wilander after scoring a 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 third-round victory over Bud Schultz. “There is more to being No. 1 than just sliding in there, play the majors and win a couple here and there.

“It doesn’t work that way. You have to go and give 100% every time you are on the court. When you are No. 1, wherever you go, people want to see your best. I feel it my duty to say this to a guy like that, because I saw him go through periods where I thought he was not giving his best effort.

“He might go out and beat me now for saying this. . . . (But) going out and giving it your best is what makes being and staying No. 1 so difficult.”

Those may be fighting words, but Wilander, the stoic Swede whose personality is as fiery as an ice floe, was typically cautious in his response.

“I do put out 100%--I think I try as much as I can,” Wilander said after eliminating Paul Annacone, 6-3, 6-7, 7-6, 6-1. “It’s nice for him to say that, because he feels I can be No. 1 and that is satisfying to me. I am doing what I can. It’s good he thinks I have the talent, and I hope he’s right.”

Very polite, very cordial, very Swedish.

Gradually, however, Wilander warmed up a bit. He started talking about McEnroe’s insinuation that to be No. 1 you must play every match--right down to that first-rounder in Newark--as if it’s a Grand Slam final.

“I don’t think he does that, either,” Wilander said. “No way. The only one who does is (Jimmy) Connors, sometimes. But McEnroe’s first match here (a five-set scare against Israel’s Shlomo Glickstein)--he didn’t play that like a U.S. Open final.”

Wilander admitted that he does place more importance on his matches in Grand Slam events than those on lesser stops on the tour.

“It’s not on purpose,” he said, “but in the Grand Slams, I tend to have more concentration and I get more excited. I play all the Grand Slams like that. I get pumped up. But, I think it’s like that for all the players.”

And if that translates into Wilander putting forth a less enthusiastic effort elsewhere, the Swede can only plead guilty.

“Yes, you have less intensity,” Wilander said. “You can’t play every match the way you play here (the U.S. Open). The matches are more important here.”

To McEnroe, such an admission is a display of weakness. McEnroe believes it to be the reason why Wilander, currently ranked No. 3 and the defending champion of both the French and Australian Opens, will have trouble rising to the level of No. 1.

Wilander, though, has no trouble with that. Whereas Connors has spent a career being obsessed with being No. 1, and whereas McEnroe and Ivan Lendl have been locked in mortal combat for years in their quests to be No. 1, Wilander says he isn’t sure it’s worth all the bother.

“I think I can be No. 1, but I don’t expect it,” Wilander said. “Maybe when Lendl, Connors and McEnroe retire. But that’ll be in 10 years.”

To reach No. 1 in 1985, it would behoove Wilander to win this U.S. Open.

But he said: “I think I have a chance to win, but I do not expect to win. I am not American, and we do not go out and expect to win this tournament. There is only one player who can say that--McEnroe, because he is the favorite.”

McEnroe is adamant about it. Tiring of questions regarding his potential quarterfinal matchup with Boris Becker, McEnroe snapped: “I don’t care about a quarterfinal match. I care about winning the tournament. You think I’m going to be happy if I beat him and lose the semifinals? The idea is to win the tournament.”

Another American, the fourth-seeded Connors, feels similarly. Connors turns 33 Monday and hasn’t won a tournament since last October, but he describes his chance of winning this Open as “likely.”

Wilander would attribute such thinking to the American condition: The best is the only way to be. Where Wilander comes from, you keep your expectations in check.

“Here, two others are ranked higher than I, so I can’t expect to win it,” Wilander said.

Someone asked him if his was a negative attitude.

“It’s a Swedish attitude,” Wilander replied. “Americans feel a different way. They go on the court and play just for winning. They never think, ‘Maybe I’m not so lucky today and maybe I won’t play so well.’

“The American attitude helps you to be more disappointed if you lose. You can’t think that way, because then you don’t enjoy your tennis. You only enjoy winning, and that’s not why I’m playing tennis.

“The philosophy of the American is when they start out to do something, they want to be the best. We want to be the best, too, but won’t tell the public that we expect to win things. I realize for me to win this tournament, I have to be lucky and play the best tennis of my life. It’s not likely, but it could happen.”

Sweden has never had a U.S. Open champion. Not even the great Bjorn Borg, who reached the U.S. Open final four times, could win it all here.

Wilander brought up Borg’s name to emphasize his point.

“Borg probably had more of an American attitude,” Wilander said, “but he also quit when he was 26, so it wasn’t a very good attitude. He won a lot of tournaments but didn’t enjoy his tennis. The biggest reason I play tennis is because I enjoy it. I don’t play to be the best.”

Would Wilander change his thinking if another Swede--say, big serving Stefan Edberg--beats him to the No. 1 position?

“It would not matter who it was. I would be happy if it was Edberg, because then we would have a Swede on top,” Wilander said. Then, with a grin, he added, “As long as none of my family passes me, it is OK.”

Just call Wilander a reluctant threat to the throne. Winning the U.S. Open would be nice, reaching No. 1 would be nicer, but Wilander isn’t planning to lose any sleep over it.

Don’t think, however, that Wilander approaches his work without a drop of passion. Some things do get him worked up.

Like a possible semifinal match here against McEnroe.

After the words uttered earlier had begun to sink in, Wilander stared down an interviewer and told him, unsmiling, “I want to play him.”

Better keep it quiet, though. That’s looking ahead. Very un-Swedish, you know.