Teen-Age Girls Court Fame in a Tough Tennis Racket

Karen Stabiner’s Thanksgiving dinner in 1983 was a cold, tired chef’s salad, which she ate alone. When she returned to her motel late that evening, after spending the day at the United States Tennis Assn.’s Junior Indoor Championships in Kansas City, Kan., the salad was all she could get.

The teen-age girls on the junior tennis tour, and their parents who travel with them, are used to lackluster meals and missing holiday gatherings. Such sacrifices are the norm for those who must arrange their schedules to meet the demands of playing competitive tennis.

Stabiner, however, does not even play tennis. She was at the tournament in Kansas City that dismal Thanksgiving doing research for her recently published book, “Courting Fame: The Perilous Road to Women’s Tennis Stardom” (Harper & Row: $16.95).

About 100,000 girls and boys throughout the United States compete in junior tennis tournaments sanctioned by the United States Tennis Assn., a number that has doubled since 1974. Many thousands more play in public-park tournaments and regional competitions.

Young Millionaires

Of those, the best junior players in the country--those who have a shot at the fame and fortune that come with professional success--are clustered in Southern California and Florida, where mild weather means that tennis can be practiced year-round.

In “Courting Fame,” Stabiner focuses on the world of women’s tennis, where the financial stakes of tournament winnings and product-endorsement contracts are so high that “you can earn a million dollars before you’re old enough to vote, like Tracy Austin did.”

“Martina Navratilova’s career earnings from tournament play only, not including endorsements, are now over $9 million, and Chris Evert Lloyd’s are over $6 million,” Stabiner said. “We are talking about the possibility of being independently wealthy for the rest of your life--and a celebrity.”

Stabiner, who lives in Santa Monica with her husband, writer Lawrence Dietz, chronicles a pivotal year in the careers of four of the nation’s top junior (amateur) players, following the teen-age girls as they travel the tennis circuit and make the decision about when and whether to turn pro.

“Everybody’s looking for the next Tracy Austin,” Stabiner said. “Sports agencies have people who specialize in junior recruitment. They’re scouting pre-teen-agers. Word gets out on the national network that some girl might be the next Tracy Austin, and the next thing you know, an ambitious family with a talented daughter collides--whammo!--with the show business people who are saying, ‘We can make your daughter a star.’ ”

On the Brink

The central figure in “Courting Fame” is Debbie Spence of Cerritos, who was ranked No. 1 among junior girls in 1983 and then turned pro at age 17 to compete in the 1984 U.S. Open. Stabiner said she chose Spence and the other girls featured in the book--Shawn Foltz, Melissa Gurney and Marianne Werdel-- because they were “exceptional players who were on the brink of the decision to turn pro.”

Because the girls’ families play an essential role in developing their careers, Stabiner then approached the Spence family, who agreed to give the author access to their daily life.

Deciding when to turn pro is an especially crucial decision for young tennis players, Stabiner said, noting that the younger a girl is, the more marketable she is to the agents who arrange product endorsements.

“There’s not as much pressure on boys to ‘cash in’ young. The men’s tennis game is a power game, so a high school boy just couldn’t survive physically,” Stabiner explained. “But the women’s game involves strategy as well as strength. So even if a girl is not at her physical peak, but is a bright player, she can have considerable pro success.”

Early Dropouts

As a result many of the girls on the circuit drop out of high school, usually with their parents’ encouragement, to devote all their time to tennis, Stabiner added, quoting tennis great Arthur Ashe: “ ‘These days, the men, if they’re really good, never finish college. And the women, if they’re really good, never finish high school.’ ”

“These are terribly impressionable 15- or 16-year-old kids with stars in their eyes. When they travel on the circuit they see Martina and Chris, they see the entourages they’ve got and the way they’re treated, and they want it too,” Stabiner said.

“You’ve got to remember that these girls are at a point when their peers are suffering the agonies of adolescence,” the author said. “A normal 16-year-old has a curfew, can’t get the car, has to go to school every day, has to do her homework, and is one of a million just like her. A 16-year-old tennis player, on the other hand, has very often dropped out of high school, drives the car to her lessons and has traveled to Paris and Tokyo and all over the U.S. So it’s a tough life, but it’s awfully glamorous.”

Despite some horror stories about “tennis parents” who push their children too hard, “All the parents I wrote about are simply ambitious and competitive,” Stabiner said. “For them, it’s not a question of whether to stay involved in all of this, but how to navigate it. That’s the challenge.

Level of Temptation

“I don’t think any of us know how we would respond to this level of temptation,” she added. “As much as you want to be reasonable about your child’s life, there is that opportunity they’re holding out. It’s a terrible risk, but how do you tell your child, ‘No, I will not allow you to take that chance. I will not allow you to do the one thing that you do better than anyone else.’? It’s a terrible dilemma for these people.”

This year, Debbie Spence’s Women’s Tennis Assn. computer ranking is in the high 30s. Will she fulfill the promise she showed as a junior?

“Her coach says that she has the skills, if she can develop the psychological fortitude, the mental game,” Stabiner said. “I believe she will end up higher than she is. Everyone knew that Martina had great promise, but she didn’t fulfill it until she was in her early 20s. Everybody’s in a big hurry to judge these kids, but even the agents say that it’s very difficult to tell. The irony of it is, though, that the more successful, the more profitable women’s tennis becomes, the more girls are going to be forced into this decision before anyone can tell how they’ll turn out.”