Grand Champions Tennis : With Becker and Tiriac in Spotlight, the Show Goes On

Boris Becker helped save the day for organizers of a tennis tournament here Sunday. And Becker wasn’t even entered.

Becker, here to play in this week’s Pilot Pen tournament at the new Grand Champions Hotel facility, put on an exhibition and clinic that had a crowd estimated at 3,000 thoroughly entertained.

And that was a good thing for tournament organizers because the singles final in the Grand Masters tournament that preceded Becker’s exhibition was a quick win by Stan Smith over Ross Case. And the Grand Masters doubles final scheduled to follow turned into a default when one of the players, Bob Lutz, had to withdraw with an injury.

By then, though, Becker and Co.--namely his business manager Ion Tiriac and another of Tiriac’s clients, Slobodan Zivojinovic--had given the crowd a great show. Becker stayed on the court for 1 hour 50 minutes, rallying with youngsters from a group of 22 whose names had been picked in a drawing. The clinic, sponsored by Puma, was for the benefit of UNICEF (United Nation’s Children’s Fund).

Tiriac, microphone pinned to his shirt, did the teaching and commentary throughout and proved once again that as a pro tennis player he missed his true calling. . His one-liners are much better than his tennis game.

During a serving demonstration by Becker in which the ball seemed to be going faster than a speeding bullet, Tiriac said, in his fractured Romanian/English: “I play for years. No serve, no forehand, little bit backhand, lots of heart. With serve like his, I play in top ten in world even now.”

At another point, when Becker was rifling crotch-high forehands at Zivojinovic at the net, Tiriac commented casually: “Is OK. Bo Bo (Zivojinovic) already has a son.”

But it was left to comedian Alan King, who has loaned his name to this tournament as a celebrity sponsor and who shared the microphone with Tiriac, to get the last word.

“All of you in the crowd who send in a card,” King said, “will be sent a tape cassette of today’s clinic with an English translation of just what in hell it was that Tiriac said for the last hour and a half.”