Three More Seeded Men Eliminated at Wimbledon

Never mind the queen.

God save the seeds.

Of the 16 favored men in Wimbledon singles, seven already have been eliminated. And this with the Wimbledon fortnight only three days old.

Latest casualties include No. 8 Anders Jarryd, No. 14 Martin Jaite and No. 16 Johan Kriek, all of whom bit the grass Wednesday. Even the top-seeded doubles team, Stefan Edberg and Jarryd, lost in the first round, in five sets to the Gullikson twins, Tim and Tom.

Seeds are falling like flies. At this rate, NBC’s “Breakfast at Wimbledon” is likely to feature a couple of loxes.

Furthermore, the American TV network would not object if a couple of American players happened to stick around for the finals. But Jimmy Connors is gone, as are Kevin Curren and Kriek, so the U.S. flag suddenly is being carried by gentlemen like Tim Mayotte, Brad Gilbert and Robert Seguso.

Where have you gone, John McEnroe? A nation turns its lonely eyes to you.

It has been awhile since the Yanks have had to worry about representation in the late rounds of Wimbledon. There has been an American in the championship match every year since Bjorn Borg beat Ilie Nastase for the title in 1976.

The only other time since 1970 that the Wimbledon men’s final did not include an American was in ‘73, when Czechoslovakia’s Jan Kodes defeated the Soviet Union’s Alex Metreveli. That was the Wimbledon boycotted by 79 leading players in a dispute with the All England Club over the suspension of a Yugoslav player, Nikki Pilic, for refusing to play for his country’s Davis Cup team.

At present, the American with the best chance of winning this wide-open Wimbledon could be “Gentleman” Tim Mayotte, the Stanford man whose bloody good sportsmanship has made him very popular with the Britons. Mayotte is playing very well of late.

“I don’t think of myself as carrying the American torch at this point,” Mayotte said Wednesday after eliminating 21-year-old Jonathan Canter of Beverly Hills, 7-5, 6-4, 7-6. “You just can’t put that on yourself. I’m happy that I’m playing well and that I’m from the United States, but besides that, I can’t say anything about it.”

There is one major obstacle in Mayotte’s bracket before the semifinals, which he also reached in 1982. Top-seeded Ivan Lendl may be waiting for him in the quarterfinals.

Not that getting that far is assured. But Tomas Smid of Czechoslovakia is Mayotte’s next opponent, followed, he hopes, either by another Czech, Jakob Hlasek, or the Pepperdine product, Eddie Edwards, who surprised Jarryd here Wednesday, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6, 6-2.

These are hardly hack players, but they are hardly household words, either. Trust us on this one: NBC is not eager for a Wimbledon final featuring Jakob Hlasek.

“The draw’s opening up pretty well for me so far,” Mayotte said.

Tennis is not a team sport, like World Cup soccer, where patriotism and jingoism is a big deal. Crowds at Wimbledon and Flushing Meadow spend precious little time during matches involving McEnroe or Chris Evert Lloyd chanting: “USA! USA!”

But suddenly the Americans find themselves in the same boat as the British and the Aussies, who once served so mightily in world tennis.

Rod Laver, Roy Emerson, John Newcombe--they took nine Wimbledon singles titles between 1961-71. But except for Ken Rosewall’s runner-up finish of 1974, Wimbledon has been bidding g’dby to the Aussies pretty early.

Australia’s hopes have been raised here with five players still alive--Pat Cash, John Fitzgerald, Mark Kratzmann, Wally Masur and Paul McNamee, the best of whom is probably Cash, who made the semis here in 1984. But since Cash had his appendix removed three weeks ago, it is uncertain how well he is going to hold up.

The poor Britons, meanwhile, have been too busy brooding about Diego Maradona of Argentina beating them in the World Cup with that crazy hand jive of his, or about boxer Barry McGuigan getting his Irish eyes blackened in Las Vegas, to wonder why half a century has passed without one of their lads winning the Wimbledon singles.

Fred Perry was the champion from 1934-36, and that’s been that. England was hoping for a hopeful in this, the 100th Wimbledon tournament, but things are bleak. John Lloyd, for instance, not only lost in the first round but also promptly announced his retirement from singles.

“I can’t invent a Boris Becker,” was the recent comment of Ian Peacock, the chief executive of Britain’s Lawn Tennis Assn. “I’m not a Dr. Frankenstein. I cannot put one person’s serve with another person’s backhand and forehand and clone Becker.”

For the moment, the top six remaining seeded players in men’s singles are the West German Becker, the Czech Lendl, France’s Henri Leconte and three Swedes, Mats Wilander, Edberg and Joakim Nystrom. Mayotte, seeded 10th, is the top-rated American.

Mayotte first gained favor here after a splendid match with Curren in 1983, after which he dropped his racket and applauded Curren. That’s where the Gentleman Tim stuff got started.

The 25-year-old Bradenton, Fla., resident is such a good sport that--wait until McEnroe and Connors hear this--he argued Wednesday that you don’t have to win to have a good time. “I’ve come off the court after losing a match and said, ‘That was fun.’ I’ve lost 6-3 and 6-3 to Lendl and still felt good about it, because it was a pretty good match,” Mayotte said.

A coach has worked long hours with Mayotte on positive mental attitude.

“Mostly, I just try not to self-destruct on the court so much,” he said. “You’ve got to work through the hard parts and get yourself into a good state of mind for every single point.

“Enjoyment of the game is on two levels. One is the pure physical level, which is really exciting. And the second thing is controlling your emotions, which a lot of guys just can’t seem to do. I consider that just as much a challenge as the tennis itself.”

This does not seem to be your typical American tennis player.

Wimbledon Notes USC’s Matt Anger moved to the third round with a 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 victory Wednesday over Britain’s Nick Fulwood. Another USC man, Tim Witsken, was eliminated by David Pate of Las Vegas, 6-3, 6-1, 7-5. . . . UCLA’s Marcel Freeman lost in straight sets to Ivan Lendl, and Brian Teacher, an old UCLA alum, fell in four sets to American Robert Seguso, slayer of Jimmy Connors. . . . Hu Na, who makes her home in Los Angeles, was a 6-0, 6-2 first-round winner over Britain’s Jo Louis. . . . Sweden’s Mikael Pernfors, the French Open runner-up, told the press here: “Just call me Mike.”