Tennis : Life Seems to Be Getting Better for Too Tall Zivojinovic

For once, here’s a giant killer who’s a giant himself. Or close to it.

Ever since Slobodan Zivojinovic upset John McEnroe in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open, the 6-foot 6-inch Yugoslav has been winning with new-found confidence.

Bobo, as he’s known on the tour, has made an impressive leap in the rankings. He started the year at No. 115 and this week checked in at No. 32.

On top of that, Zivojinovic has impressed observers with his cool demeanor and wry wit. A case in point was the match with McEnroe in Australia.

It was a bad tournament all around for McEnroe. It was a tossup which was lower--his behavior or the level of his game. Remember, this was the tournament where McEnroe admitted, “I made an ass out of myself.”

Here’s an example. McEnroe began the match by arguing line calls with such regularity, that Zivojinovic grew weary of the time lapses. During one particularly lengthy dispute, Zivojinovic calmly took a seat in the stands and had a sandwich, provided by an amused fan.

“I think that against McEnroe, I did the right thing,” Zivojinovic, 22, said in excellent, but heavily accented English from his home in Boca Raton, Fla., where he is preparing for the Pilot Pen Classic at La Quinta Feb. 24-March 2.

“I think he wanted to do this because he wanted to take me out of my concentration. He’s a smart guy and he knows what he’s doing. If you pay a little attention to him, you are in trouble. If you stand and look at him and start to think, ‘What is this?,’ you are out.

“I don’t mean anything bad against John. I like him. He’s a good guy. But when he started arguing with the umpire, I just went and sat down. I did not want to listen to him or look at him. I knew he would be a few minutes.”

Although he has homes in Monte Carlo and Florida, Bobo remains a Yugoslav.

“It is wonderful for me in Yugoslavia,” he said. “I am one of the top sportsmen there. They know me from the Davis Cup. It is nice that they know a tennis player since football (soccer) is the most popular sport. Children used to play only football in the streets. Now, it’s also tennis.

“This is nice. A couple of years ago if you had said tennis, people would have thought table tennis.

“(Tennis) is very well known and right now we have two players in the top 100 in the world. For the number of people we have in the country, that’s pretty good.”

Zivojinovic met Boris Becker, his doubles partner, in European Davis Cup matches. For a time, he lived in Hamburg, West Germany, where he was able to play more matches with Becker. Zivojinovic, like Becker, is a powerful serve-and-volley player, and they make a formidable team.

Zivojinovic credits his improved play to his move away from a limited tournament schedule to a full calender of playing.

“Today, the level of play is so high,” he said. “Everyone knows how to play tennis. If you don’t practice hard and play many tournaments, you’ll never get anywhere. The difference from juniors to the pros is really big. Once you are here, everyone is good.

“It was an adjustment for me to play tournaments in America. As a junior, you know you can’t make much money. The only way for you to travel to play is to have a sponsor. It’s very hard. I think the big difference is in myself. I think 1985 was the first year I played from the first of the year straight through.”

Zivojinovic is enjoying his celebrity, and he hopes fans enjoy his play.

“I like to come to the United States where people recognize me,” he said. “I think it is good for tennis to have new names and new faces. It keeps it from being boring.”

Tennis Notes They are calling her the new Chris Evert Lloyd, the one who just won the Virginia Slims of Florida. Lloyd used her six-week layoff from the tour as a rest from tennis but worked in the weight room. “I’m trying to be more of an all-court player,” she said. “I’m trying to play more aggressively. I don’t want my serve to just start out a point. I want it as a weapon. I’m stronger from the weight work.” . . . Several California players are in the 1986 Rolex National Indoor Intercollegiate tournament, which will end today at the University of Houston. Robby Weiss of Pepperdine will play singles and the team of Kevin Gilette and Craig Miller of Cal State Long Beach will play doubles. In women’s competition, Carolyn Kuhlman of USC will play singles and the team of Jane Thomas and Jennifer Fuchs of UCLA will play doubles. . . . The Coachella Valley Teaching Pro tournament is scheduled Feb. 11-13 at the Tennis Club of Palm Springs. The tournament, with a purse of $1,600, is open to all teaching pros and tennis directors in the Coachella Valley. Finals are set for Feb. 16. . . . The annual meeting of the Southern California Tennis Assn. is set for Feb. 27 at 6 p.m. at the L.A. Tennis Center (on the UCLA campus). The meeting is open to the public. . . . The SCTA’s college and university scholarship committee will meet Feb. 23 at 2 p.m. in the clubhouse of the L.A. Tennis Center to discuss the availability of tennis scholarships for the fall of 1986. The public is invited to attend. . . . The Pacific Coast Sectional Doubles, featuring California’s top collegiate doubles teams, is scheduled Feb. 27-March 2 at the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club.