Tennis : Shriver Responds Angrily to Remarks Made by Cash

Pam Shriver returned Monday from winning the doubles title, along with Martina Navratilova, at the French Open and landed in the middle of a row over women’s tennis.

As she waited in vain for the rain to stop so that she could begin defending her title at the Edgbaston Cup women’s grass court championships, the world’s sixth-ranked women’s player had sharp answers for Pat Cash. The Australian Davis Cup star is quoted in a magazine article as saying that only the top four women’s players deserve their money.

Cash’s comments include the description of women’s tennis as “just two sets of rubbish” and that it is “junk.” He says the public comes to see the men play and that many of the leading women players should not get the money they are paid.

“Cash has made remarks like this before,” Shriver said. “He sounds like a chauvinistic Aussie to me. It is a little bit of a chauvinistic country.

“He is being narrow-minded and maybe a bit dumb. Some people have to be broader minded than Pat Cash, otherwise we should be in trouble. But some of my best friends are Aussies and there is no sense in getting too upset about it.

“I have to say that watching him play the Davis Cup was the gutsiest thing I have ever seen, and he’s got guts with his mouth as well.”

Comparing the excitement generated by the two singles finals in Paris during the weekend, Shriver added: “Watching (Steffi) Graf versus (Martina) Navratilova in the French Open final makes me think that most people would have found the women’s final more entertaining than the men’s (in which Ivan Lendl took some 4 hours to beat Mats Wilander in four sets).”

In London, rain postponed the first day of the Queens Club grass court tournament--and cost the sponsors $26,000.

The tournament guarantees to reimburse all center-court ticket holders if there is fewer than two hours of play. The only action Monday was a three-minute practice session between defending champion Tim Mayotte and fellow American Todd Nelson. Then the rain returned and forced the referee to call play for the day.