At Wimbledon, the Forecast Is Becker and Rain

Weather permitting, champion Boris Becker of West Germany has the honor of playing the first match on Centre Court at Wimbledon today for the second straight year.

Becker, at 19, is favored to become the first player to win the All England Championships three times as a teen-ager.

On the other hand, the reigning women’s champion, Martina Navratilova, is expected to be hard-pressed to win a record sixth straight singles title at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club.

“Obviously, with my results this year, I’m no longer the unsinkable good ship Molly Brown,” Navratilova said after losing to Helena Sukova of Czechoslovakia in the final of a $200,000 grass-court tournament Saturday at Eastbourne, England.

Weather could put a damper on opening day. The forecast is for showers until Thursday.

Navratilova is scheduled to begin play on Tuesday as is her strongest competition--West Germany’s Steffi Graf, Chris Evert, Sukova and Australian Open champion Hana Mandlikova of Czechoslovakia.

Besides Becker, who plays Czechoslovakia’s Karol Kovacek, today’s schedule includes five other players given a strong chance to win the title.

Czechoslovakia’s Ivan Lendl, seeded second, faces Romania’s Christian Saceanu in his first-round match.

Stefan Edberg, seeded fourth, has proven his grass-court skills by winning the Australian Open twice, including this past January. He will take on fellow Swede Stefan Eriksson on the infamous No. 2 court where many a favorite has fallen.

Third-seeded Mats Wilander of Sweden also will play on Court 2, meeting South Africa’s Gary Muller. Like Edberg, Wilander is a two-time champion of the Australian Open.

Pat Cash of Australia, who defeated Lendl in the semifinals of the Australian Open this year before losing to Edberg, is seeded 11th. Cash’s first-round opponent will be former UCLA player Marcel Freeman.

Tim Mayotte, seeded 10th, is scheduled to face France’s Jean-Philippe Fleurian to begin the two-week tournament. Mayotte has always done well in major tournaments, reaching the quarterfinals at the All England Club last year and the semifinals in 1982.

But Becker is the overwhelming favorite of the bookmakers and the other players.

However, Kevin Curren, who lost to Becker in the 1985 final, sounds a note of caution.

“Because he won at 17 and 18 doesn’t mean he will automatically win at 19,” Curren said. “The depth of the game is so strong now there’s any number of guys who can stop him. He only has to drop a little and someone will get him.

“Wally Masur (of Australia) did it in the Australian Open this year, and Michiel Schapers (of the Netherlands) the year before, both times on grass. Neither of them are big names in the game. But they’re good, and there’s so many more like them.”

The almost daily rains that have swept England this spring already have created one problem. Officials have asked the public to leave their cars at home because the grassy parking lots have become mud baths.

Bookmakers are laying odds that rain will interrupt or cancel play every day for the first week.