Tennis : Touring Americans Find Soviet Union a Real Eye-Opener

It may take a summit to bring the leaders of the United States and the Soviet Union together, but all it took was a little persistence to bring together the tennis players of the two nations.

A Beverly Hills sports consultant did the diplomats one better. Alan Boltin led a group of about 30 American tennis players--hackers, really, from ages 29-69--on a five-city tour of the Soviet Union. Object: a Friendship Tennis Exchange Team that would take average American club players and arrange matches with average Soviet players. The group returned early this month.

“It’s tennis diplomacy. There has been international professional tennis in Russia only two times in the last 30 years,” Boltin said. “I just saw a special chance to meet on common ground. The important aspect of our tour was the interaction between the players. The purpose was very clear--meet people and have social dialogue.”

But, with only about 50,000 tennis players in the Soviet Union, Boltin’s players had little chance of meeting their “average counterparts.” Tennis in the Soviet Union is still very much a game for the privileged class.

“Almost all the people we played were professional people,” Boltin said. “Some were former top players and coaches. It was a select group.

“At first, we intended to play singles and doubles with American teams versus Soviet teams and players. In Moscow, after the first set, we were totally blown out. They were much better than our recreational players. From then on, we had Americans play with Soviet partners. It fit more the purpose to play with rather than against them.”

Naturally, such an undertaking had to be well planned. And, while national teams in such sports as swimming and track and field regularly compete behind the Iron Curtain, such trips are rare for non-official groups.

Boltin spent two months in the Soviet Union earlier this year, meeting with Soviet sports officials. Because of the tour’s meet-the-people emphasis, Boltin said a few officials balked at allowing the Americans to play in their cities.

“Everything that was proposed had to be approved in each republic independently,” he said. “We wanted to make sure the Soviet players would be allowed to meet us and speak freely. Most officials agreed. The only city where we wanted to go and weren’t allowed was Leningrad.”

The players in Boltin’s group took full advantage of the opportunity to meet with their Soviet counterparts. Some Americans slipped out for self-guided tours, some were invited to the homes of the Soviet players and some were even approached by Soviet dissidents. One American was taken to a remote, private court where he was invited to play with a Communist Party official.

It was an exchange in another way, too. Boltin brought dozens of tennis rackets to give as gifts to the Soviets.

“We saw only a very few American rackets,” he said. “Those were very old. They had probably been bought by someone who had been posted to the United States. The equipment was really outdated. They were playing with old rackets, old shoes and mismatched clothes. But they were better than us in all elements of their game.”

Boltin says he plans to make the tour again next year, this time with stops in more cities.

But what about the ‘exchange’ part of the Friendship Tennis Exchange Tour? The Soviets say nyet to a similar tour of the United States.

“I guess it’s a pretty one-sided exchange,” Boltin said. “I’d love to see a group come over here. But I’d be surprised.”

Another tennis team returned recently from faraway lands. The U.S. National Tennis Team toured the People’s Republic of China on a combined sports and cultural exchange

The American team was made up of top amateur players, and the Chinese drew from their Olympic and Davis Cup teams.

In the best diplomatic spirit, the U.S. and Chinese teams each won two matches.

Tennis Notes

Ilie Nastase, the rowdy Romanian, announced that this year’s U.S. Open would be his last. It won’t be the last of him, however. The 39-year-old recently published his first novel in French. Called “Tie Break,” it’s a detective story set (where else) at Wimbledon and the French and U.S. opens. They say, write what you know. The English edition will be published soon. . . . Pam Shriver, who has taken her share of shots from the press, returned the jibes in kind at a recent tournament in Chicago. When it was pointed out that Sweden has one of the highest alcoholism rates in the world, she was jokingly asked if she thought that the secret to the success of the Swedes on the men’s tour was that they were tipsy on the court. Shriver shot back: “If that’s the case, Chicago must have the best sportswriters in the world.” . . . Now It Can Told: Wimbledon champion/teen heart throb Boris Becker has been, as they say in the social press, romantically linked with several young women. Now, last week at a tournament in Stuttgart, West German journalists uncovered yet another Becker Buddy. American Susan Mascarin confirmed that she is a close friend of the 17-year-old red-head. Mascarin (already cast by the European press as The Older Woman--she’s 21) said she met Becker at Wimbledon and spent five days in Monte Carlo playing tennis with him.