Tennis : Edberg Is Now Getting a Kick Out of His Serve

What’s to be done about Stefan Edberg, who is emerging as the sweetest of the Swedes?

Grit your teeth, stand your ground and pray for rain, says Johan Kriek.

Edberg has trampled Kriek twice in the last two weeks, most recently in winning the Transamerica Open last weekend in San Francisco.

Kriek’s praise for the 19-year-old Edberg may sound like the old he-beat-me-so-he-must-be-pretty-good routine, but Kriek is a proud, confident man, not given to heaping praise on others.

When he beat John McEnroe in the quarterfinals of the Transamerica tournament, for instance, Kriek was rankled that his decisive victory appeared devalued by McEnroe’s lingering stomach virus. The feisty Kriek reminded all within sound range that he is capable of beating anyone.

So, when Kriek acclaimed Edberg to be the tour’s hot young star, notice was taken. Kriek’s discovery was hardly his own, however. Edberg has been drawing attention for some time.

When he won the Junior Grand Slam in 1983, becoming the only player to do so, attention was paid. When he won the Olympic gold medal in singles, eyebrows went up again. And, when Edberg helped defeat the U.S. Davis Cup team last year, he had arrived.

According to Kriek, though, Edberg had arrived years before.

“I was impressed with Stefan Edberg the first time I saw him play,” Kriek said. “It was in 1981 or ’82 at a tournament in France. He was playing in a junior exhibition. He was amazing. He was beating the guy so badly he made the other guy look like he needed a hospital bed.”

What is different about Edberg is how different he is from other Swedish players. Unlike Mats Wilander, Anders Jarryd, Joakim Nystrom and Bjorn Borg before them, Edberg is an aggressive serve-and-volley player. And although he’s not gregarious on court, he’s not an Arctic ice floe, either. Edberg also has a fine one-handed backhand and a tremendous serve.

It is the improvement of his serve, especially the high-kicking second serve, that has propelled Edberg to play what he calls the best tennis of his career.

Edberg’s first serve is hard and fast and almost always in. He gets it in 70%-80% of the time--about 20% better than the average of male professionals. And, if the first fails, there’s his second, which drives opponents wide on the return.

“How far can he go?” Kriek mused. “There’s no telling. I think a guy like Boris Becker may have more ground strokes, possibly. But who needs ground strokes with a serve like that?”

Local players have two new tournaments to add to their schedules. Both are regional qualifiers leading to national championship competition. Both also offer opportunities to players who are often overlooked.

The first annual Rolex Small College Western Collegiate Tennis Championships will be held Oct. 11-13 at Claremont-Mudd College. The event, featuring both men’s and women’s singles competition, is one of several regional competitions. The winner of each tournament will qualify for the national tournament Dec. 9-11 in Fort Meyers, Fla.

Tennis club champions are eligible to compete in the Paine Webber-Tennis Magazine Club Champion Invitational. The Los Angeles regional will be played at the Racquet Centre in North Hollywood Nov. 7-9. Any current private or public tennis club champion may enter.

Tennis Notes Herb Caen, columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, kept a close eye on John McEnroe and Tatum O’Neal during their stay in San Francisco for the Transamerica Open last weekend. At one point, McEnroe and O’Neal were sighted looking at china patterns at Tiffany’s, prompting speculation from Caen that they were setting up a bridal registry in the swank store. Said McEnroe: “I was there buying two rings--one for my dad, one for me. Sure, Tatum and I are engaged, and we’re getting married soon, but the bridal registry will be in Los Angeles, where we’ll be spending most of our time.” . . . Rob Morse, columnist for the San Francisco Examiner, joined his colleagues in the city and took his shots at McEnroe. He reported that when O’Neal was asked how she deals with McEnroe’s anger, she replied sharply, “Don’t ever use that word. John doesn’t get angry.” To which Morse added, “It is a good bet that John has never called Tatum “the pits of the world.” . . . Australian Pat Cash in Interview magazine: “Girls aren’t playing tennis. I don’t know what they call it, honestly, but it’s really not tennis. Only men play tennis. Women play something else. The top few women play what the men would describe as bad tennis.”