Tennis : Pro Players Want to Compete in 1988 Olympics

Nothing is simple in professional tennis. It’s the rule, rather than the exception for even little problems to become significant ones.

Keeping that in mind, imagine the potential for difficulty with the International Tennis Federation’s experimental plan to make professional tennis players eligible for Olympic competition.

The proposal would make professional tennis players amateurs for the two weeks of the Games, and also during a two-week training period before the competition.

So far, so good. Although the time frame might interfere with men’s tour stops in Los Angeles and San Francisco, it wouldn’t clash with any of the major tournaments.

With the 1988 Games opening in Seoul, South Korea, on Sept. 17, the training would start after the U.S. Open in Flushing Meadow.

Here, though, is the part of the proposal that muddles the issue: Players would have to suspend their endorsement contracts during the training period and the Games to comply with Olympic rules. They would also have to temporarily sever relations with agents, managers and coaches.

Even if players such as Boris Becker, John McEnroe and Ivan Lendl wanted to do those things, would the agents who represent them and the companies they represent permit them to?

Not likely.

The proposal was recently adopted by the executive board of the International Olympic Committee. If it is ratified by the IOC in May at Istanbul, Turkey, the code will be in place for the 1988 Games at Seoul.

Its problem was perhaps best illustrated by Becker, the two-time Wimbledon champion. He was asked a straightforward question about playing in the Olympics, gave a straightforward answer, and then chaos ensued.

“I would very much like to play in the Olympics,” he said here last week at the Pilot Pen tournament. “I was recently at a ball in Germany, a big fancy deal, and I got together with (IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch). We talked about it and it would be the biggest thing for tennis, if it happened.

“I think we have the right to play there and it’s such a popular sport for the public already that I think it would only help. If you talk about the pros and the amateurs, I think any good running star of the Olympics, if you talk about a Carl Lewis, makes more money than Ivan Lendl.

“I talked to a lot of the players and we would be all delighted to play because it’s a one-time chance.”

Then, a German reporter asked Becker a question about the temporary suspension of endorsement contracts. That prompted a reaction from Becker’s manager, Ion Tiriac, who was sitting in on the press conference.

“The IOC is going to ask me . . . how?” Tiriac said. “The man is selling . . . you can’t stop the world industry that sells Boris Becker products for that four weeks. The man is selling products, Boris Becker. He is paid by every company he sells, by a royalty.”

Another reporter joked: “All the money goes to Samaranch.”

“I think Mr. Samaranch is a very good president for the top for the moment,” Tiriac said. “He is wanting very much to get it through. He has honored Mr. Becker with his presence two or three times, including at the final of the Davis Cup. And that proves that the man wants to get it through.”

Tiriac was just getting warmed up and Becker had become a bystander for the moment.

“Should we allow him to go on?” someone asked Becker.

“He’s old enough,” Becker said, shrugging.

That discussion was merely a forerunner to the kind of confusion that will be occurring in tennis if the proposal is approved.

Opinions of some of the other male pros on the Olympics:

“I would like to go back because it would be very nice,” said Stefan Edberg, the second-ranked player in the world and Olympic champion in 1984, when tennis was a demonstration sport.

“It’s a tough question (on the restrictions) because most of the athletes are pros in the Olympics. But if it’s just three to four weeks, I could do that.”

Said Yannick Noah: “I don’t know yet. We’ll have to wait and see what tennis will represent in the Olympics. I don’t want tennis to become a fluke. . . . All this (bleep) about amateurs and pros. Tennis is a great sport because it’s organized. . . . This is the most ridiculous thing (the endorsement restriction). Everyone knows what racket I’m playing with.”

Then there are less recognized players. American Jonathan Canter is a young pro trying to make his way up in the rankings.

“Me?” said Canter, who is 46th in the world. “If they wanted me to play, I would. I wouldn’t have to give up that much. If I’m in a different situation in a couple of years, I don’t know what I’d say. I don’t want to sit here and say that if I was up there, I’d definitely give up that stuff.”

And, from France’s Henri Leconte: “I want to play in the Olympics. I was one of the first who wanted to play, but they said I was too old last time. I’ll have to talk with Philippe Chatrier (ITF president) about this.”