La Quinta Tennis Tournament : Becker Advances Amid Warnings for Language, Coaching

Despite his impeccable handling of the English language, Boris Becker is having trouble making himself understood at the Pilot Pen tennis tournament.

The West German teen-ager got into his second scrape in two days during his 6-2, 6-4 third-round win Thursday over Jose Higueras.

This time, it was a misunderstanding involving Becker’s coach, Gunther Bosch. In spite of Becker’s protests, he was given a warning for being coached illegally.

The previous day, it had been something else. An umpire had put words into Becker’s mouth, nasty words. In his second-round victory over Mike Leach, Becker was given a code warning for an audible obscenity. Audible, yes, but understandable only if you understand German.

The word in question is mensch, which translates literally to human being or people but in this context is the equivalent of several less complimentary terms, the least offensive being baggage.

Becker, visibly upset, approached the chair and asked, “Since when do you speak German?”

The umpire admitted that he didn’t.

“Then how do you know what I said?” Becker asked.

Not bad logic for an 18-year-old.

In Thursday’s match, Becker’s serve made a lot of noise, as usual. But it was other noises, the kind directed at umpires, that drew questions from reporters.

“Sure, sometimes I’m yelling,” Becker said. “But I’m not speaking words, I’m just making sounds.”

Funny, that’s the very thing the umpire accused Becker’s coach of doing Thursday--uttering sounds like, “Hey, Boris, more top spin on your service return.”

Becker was given a code violation warning for coaching in the second set of his third-round singles match. He was also given a warning for coaching in his doubles match later in the day. The umpire said that Bosch was aiding Becker. Becker said that Bosch was minding his own business.

“This guy could not even see,” Becker said of the umpire. “There was a big umbrella (above him), and he could not see around it.”

Chair umpire Bill Ruhle had been craning his neck to observe Bosch, who was seated behind him.

“Maybe when I am playing, he (Bosch) can sit in his hotel room,” Becker said. “Eighty percent of the players have a coach. I don’t think a coach can help so much when you are on the court. I am just watching him automatically. I think it is a very stupid rule.”

That’s Men’s International Professional Tennis Council Rule, Article V, Section M, Coaching: “Players shall not receive coaching during a tournament match.”

It’s the same rule Becker is getting a reputation for breaking. Bosch has been caught acting like a first-base coach in baseball--using hand signals and gestures.

Now, Becker thinks, the word is out, and officials are out to get him.

“In the last five matches, I have been getting code violations for language and coaching,” Becker said. “In Melbourne (at the Australian Open) I behaved much worse than I did here and I got nothing. Here, I am being called but I am behaving well.”

Becker was asked if he thought he was being singled out by officials.

“At the moment, I think so,” he said. “Playing is not fun anymore (when it happens). I think maybe I’m going to talk to them.”

Higueras said that, to him, whether Becker was coached or not really didn’t matter.

“I don’t really care, to tell you the truth,” Higueras said. “I never really have. I think the one who plays is the one who is on the court.

“I personally think that once you go on the court, you play professional tennis. You should know what to do. I don’t think the coach can do anything. The only thing that would be bad is if the coach bothers your opponent.”

Mats Wilander, seeded No. 1 in this tournament, offered a different opinion.

“It’s one of the best rules,” Wilander said. “I can’t say if his coach is coaching. You can’t always tell. If he is, he should get a warning.”

Wilander agreed that often coaches can’t help a player while a match is in progress.

“That’s true, but it’s still not fair,” he said. “The coach might as well be playing.”

Notes It was not a day of upsets here. Top-seeded Mats Wilander defeated Aaron Krickstein, 7-5, 6-1; second-seeded Jimmy Connors beat Jaime Yzaga, 6-1, 6-2, and fourth-seeded Yannick Noah downed Dan Goldie, 6-3, 7-6 (7-5). . . . Despite temperatures in the 100s, players said that Thursday’s conditions were better than they had been earlier in the week. Wednesday, during Boris Becker’s match at noon, the on-court thermometer read 120 degrees. That’s as high as the gauge would go. . . . Rick Leach and Tim Pawsat of USC nearly upset Becker and Slobodan Zivojinovic in the second round of doubles. Becker and Zivojinovic won, 6-7, 7-6, 6-0.