Connors, Cash Forced to Sit Out L.A. Tennis Tourney

The Volvo Tennis/Los Angeles Tournament, which begins today at the L.A. Tennis Center at UCLA, will be without two notable players: Jimmy Connors and Pat Cash.

Connors was suspended last week by the Men’s International Professional Tennis Council because he had accumulated fines of more than $7,500 during the year. Connors, the tournament’s defending champion, faces a 42-day suspension--21 days if he plays no competitive tennis. That may suit Connors fine, as he could use the time to nurse the ankle he injured at the U.S. Open earlier this month.

Cash, the powerful Australian, pulled out of the tournament with a back injury, a recurring injury that forced him to withdraw from the U.S. Open.

That leaves John McEnroe. The new California resident should work his way through the draw with ease. Of course, that’s what they said about McEnroe and the U.S. Open.

McEnroe, the tournament’s top-seeded player, will play Vijay Amritraj Wednesday night at 7:30. Amritraj handed McEnroe one of only three defeats he suffered in 1984. That came in the first round of the Assn. of Tennis Professionals Championships in Cincinnati. A boost for Amritraj is that the surface at the L. A. Tennis Center is the same hard-type court as in Cincinnati.

The tournament will also feature a homecoming of sorts for Stefan Edberg. It will be the first time the Swede has played on the UCLA courts since he won the gold medal in the 1984 Olympic tennis exhibition.

Daytime sessions begin at noon today through Friday. Evening sessions begin at 7:30 Tuesday through Saturday. The semifinals begin at 1 p.m. Saturday and the final on Sunday at 4 p.m.