Los Angeles Tennis Tournament : Despite Loss, the Frustration Is Over for Canter

Jonathan Canter may be past the anger and rebellion now, but it was a bitter struggle. Canter, 21, a tennis pro from Beverly Hills, has taken the energy he used to expend arguing with his father and transferred it to tennis, where it may be a constructive force for him.

It happened just in time. Canter’s career in tennis might have been a classic case of parental pressure meeting a teen-aged stone wall. Canter matured, though, and his ability grew into something too valuable to throw away out of spite.

Canter is content now and played well in losing to Brad Gilbert in the second round of the Volvo Tennis/Los Angeles tournament Thursday. He lost to the second-seeded Gilbert, 6-3, 6-3, on a court similar to the one he played on as a child, only a few minutes from the Los Angeles Tennis Center at UCLA.

Then, tennis was his escape and his curse. Canter was exposed to tennis through his father, movie producer Stan Canter.

“My father, to me, was always tennis,” Jonathan said. “I never thought of him as anything else but tennis. I just thought (movie making) was his hobby.”

Stan played the game, as a base-liner, with great success, first at Modesto Junior College and later at UCLA.

At the time, however, tennis was hardly a career that could support an ambitious young man, however much that young man may have loved it. Even as he left the game for films, though, the elder Canter remained close to tennis. He was Jimmy Connors’ manager in 1975 and was always available for players to practice against.

When Jonathan showed an interest and an aptitude for the game at 7, Stan began to coach and guide his son. They spent all their days together. The pair began to look like yet another father-pushes-son-to-be-what-he-couldn’t-be-himself.

“I can’t say that he didn’t push me,” Jonathan Canter said. “We’ve both overcome a lot of difficulties we’ve had in the past.”

The difficulties were such that Canter considered quitting tennis at 18, the same year he was No. 1 nationally in that age group.

“It was a combination of a lot of things,” he said. “I was really upset at him for pushing me into tennis. He got a little carried away. I got so frustrated, I was on the verge of quitting. I thought about it. Then I thought, ‘I’m so good at this, why quit?’

“I wasn’t mature enough to handle the situation I was in. It took me a little time. I was able to understand my father and myself.”

Stan Canter nods when asked about the past conflicts. He, too, has a better understanding of himself and his son.

“At about age 17, boys go through the phase of wanting to be an adult,” Stan Canter said. “At the time, it was impossible to help him. He would say, ‘Look, I know exactly how I want to hit this ball and no one is going to tell me how to do it.’

“It was a combination of disappointment and rebellion against me. What I’m saying is that I’ve probably mellowed a great deal.”

Mellow is an apt description of the younger Canter. Players from Dayton or Pittsburgh are glitzier.

“We’ve never had a Beverly Hills life,” Stan Canter said. “I don’t believe in that. I was supposed to leave for Australia last night, but I changed my reservations to watch Jonathan today.”

Canter said he doesn’t spend as much time on Jonathan’s tennis as he would like, about 30% of his time. Yet, in a notebook, he still charts each point in his son’s match and evaluates the progress of Canter’s improving serve.

Stan Canter thinks his son, who is ranked No. 37, can be in the top 10.

“I think he’s got the potential,” he said. “No one tries harder than Jonathan.”

Gilbert, who used to hit with Stan Canter and has practiced with Jonathan since they were teen-agers, said Canter may be the hardest-working player on the tour. “He’s the epitome of hard work,” Gilbert said. “He’s been working like this since he was 15.”

Canter, though, has not always put all his energy into tennis. There was also music.

“Jonathan made a few tapes when he was 17,” Stan Canter said. “He could have signed a recording contract. He’s a wonderful keyboard player and composer. I think once he made the decision to not pursue music and stay with tennis, his game really improved.”

Tournament Notes Yet another seeded player lost Thursday. Derrick Rostagno, a qualifier, beat eighth-seeded Aaron Krickstein, 6-1, 6-3, in the second round. Rostagno, of Brentwood, has not lost a set in five matches. . . . In other second-round matches, top-seeded Stefan Edberg of Sweden overpowered Brod Dyke of Australia, 6-4, 6-1; John McEnroe beat Christo Steyn of South Africa, 7-5, 6-3, and David Pate beat Mike Leach, 6-2, 6-3.