Tennis / Lisa Dillman : Nastase Acts Nasty Again, and Stockton Reacts

A popular category: Those in tennis who have supposedly mellowed with the passage of time.

Jimmy Connors? Well, maybe.

John McEnroe? Well, not yet.

Ilie Nastase? Well, how about never?

You can take Nastase off the Grand Prix circuit, but, you can’t take the Nasty out of Nastase.

He proved that--again--in a recent mixed doubles tournament at the Laguna Niguel Racquet Club. Nastase, 40, was playing with Robin White against Dick Stockton and Bonnie Gadusek in a semifinal match.

According to tournament director Brian Parrott, Nastase was going through his usual act, bantering with the umpire and spectators. But he was also hitting the ball very hard at Gadusek.

Then, Parrott said, Nastase slapped a ball at a linesman after a close call went against him toward the end of the second set.

And here’s where the versions of what happened at Laguna Niguel begin to differ.

Said Parrott: “I think that was the straw that broke the camel’s back as far as Stockton was concerned. On the changeover, he didn’t towel off but went to Nastase’s side and started to yell at him.

“Within a short period of time, (Stockton) grabbed him by the shirt and slugged him. They danced with each other for a while, and a large body-builder-type guy came out of the crowd and got between them.”

Stockton doesn’t deny that things got out of hand.

“It’s really something I’d prefer not to talk about,” he said. “We both lost our tempers and got into a pushing and shoving match. We both regretted it afterward.

“But there were no punches thrown. It wasn’t a pretty sight and it would have been a lot worse if punches had been thrown.”

After the two were separated, play resumed when the situation calmed down.

“Some of the football players in the crowd said they didn’t think it was that great a fight,” said Parrott, who works for Louisiana Pacific and is the director of Davis Cup staging.

“They said it looked like they were waiting to be broken up.”

Although the “fight” may not merit a mention in Ring magazine, don’t look for the incident to affect Nastase’s income. Some players have expressed strong feelings about not participating in these events with Nastase. But the promoters and organizers of events know a drawing card when they see one.

Nastase’s latest appearance in Southern California was a quiet one. He played in a Grand Champions event at the Claremont Club in Claremont last week--without flare-up.

“He’s been driving us all nuts in every tournament, except in this one,” Marty Riessen said last Sunday. “Maybe (the incident at Laguna Niguel) had something to do with it.”

Add Stockton: The competition among players to get behind the microphone after their days on the major circuit are over seems as hard-fought as the quest for rankings.

Stockton joined Cliff Drysdale and Tracy Austin in the ESPN broadcast booth during an exhibition tournament a week ago at Ixtapa, Mexico. He did color commentary for the broadcast, which will be televised Nov. 15.

Stockton said: “I’ve done a lot of it before, but never on a national level. I’ve never been intimidated by cameras and microphones. I’d like to do it, but it’s a very difficult thing to break into.”

Tennis Notes Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert Lloyd will be playing in a $250,000, six-woman event Dec. 5-7 at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage. Others expected to compete are Carling Bassett, Mary Jo Fernandez, Stephanie Rehe and Anne White. . . . Ivan Lendl and Stefan Edberg will meet in the opening round of the Tennis Challenge Series at the Forum Nov. 24. This stop on the yearlong, round-robin tournament also includes John McEnroe and Miloslav Mecir. McEnroe, however, is now facing suspension for his outburst in Paris Friday.