Australian Open Tennis Championships : McEnroe Fined $1,250, Faces Automatic Suspension

Seeking his first Grand Slam title of 1985, John McEnroe unleashed a stinging attack on the condition of the court Friday during his second-round victory over South Africa’s Danie Visser in the $1.5-million Australian Open tennis championships, a win that proved to be costly.

The 26-year-old New Yorker was given a code violation for an audible obscenity after his 2 1/2-hour 6-4, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 victory on what he called “without a doubt the worst grass court” he has ever played on.

McEnroe, who was watched by fiancee Tatum O’Neal, later was fined $1,250. Because he has now exceeded the Men’s International Professional Tennis Council’s $7,500 limit, he will automatically receive a 21-day suspension beginning immediately after the Australian Open.

But McEnroe found an unlikely ally in defending women’s singles champion Chris Evert Lloyd, who also criticized the court after struggling to a 4-6, 6-4, 6-0 second-round victory over Betsy Nagelsen. Lloyd is top-seeded in the women’s bracket.

She said she had “played on better courts, let’s put it that way.”

Visser, a sturdy and determined left-hander, kept the pressure on McEnroe throughout their match, and the American grew increasingly angry as he kept losing his footing.

During the third set, the second-seeded McEnroe asked tournament referee Peter Bellenger if the players could move to the court on the right side of the main arena, which had been used for the first four days. But the request was refused.

After slipping again later in the match, McEnroe told the balding Bellenger: “If this court is OK, you’ve got hair on your head.”

At a news conference later, McEnroe said the court was too hard and too slippery. “It’s not really tennis anymore,” he said. “It is fighting for survival. I don’t enjoy playing in conditions which I feel hinder my game. I don’t think I can play my best tennis on this court.”

He described the matches on the surface as “one shot, hit-and-miss tennis.”

McEnroe, who was involved in an incident with a reporter and a photographer at his hotel Tuesday, felled a photographer Friday with a smash on a practice court. He apologized immediately, and bystanders said it did not appear intentional.

McEnroe was joined in the last 32 of the men’s singles by No. 5-seeded Stefan Edberg of Sweden, No. 6 Johan Kriek, No. 7 Joakim Nystrom of Sweden, No. 8 Tim Mayotte, No. 9 Brad Gilbert and No. 13 Henri Leconte of France.

Edberg romped to a 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 win over Bud Schultz; Kriek ousted New Zealander David Mustard, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, and Nystrom defeated Sammy Giammalva, 6-3, 6-2, 5-7, 6-4.

Mayotte beat Mark Dickson, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4; Gilbert eliminated Shahar Perkiss of Israel, 6-3, 6-3, 7-6, and Leconte ousted another Israeli, Amos Mansdorf, 6-4, 6-2, 7-5.

Two seeded men, both Americans, lost to young Australian players.

Darren Cahill defeated 15th-seeded David Pate, 3-6, 7-6, 6-3, 6-0, while Mark Woodforde ousted 16th-seeded Greg Holmes, 1-6, 6-1, 6-4, 6-2.

In women’s singles, two seeded players also fell by the wayside--No. 11 Barbara Potter and No. 14 Lisa Bonder.

Anne Hobbs of Britain surprised Potter, 6-4, 7-5, while Ann Henricksson edged Bonder, 3-6, 6-3, 9-7.