WIMBLEDON ’87 : Connors Reaches Semifinals With Convincing Win

Jimmy Connors and the Princess of Wales, everyone’s favorite mixed doubles team, thrilled the Wimbledon throngs Wednesday with exciting appearances, as what once seemed to be shaping up as a boring tournament steamed toward a pip of a finish.

Princess Di appeared in the Royal Box on Centre Court for the first time this year, without Prince Charles, and looking splendid in a bright red-and-white polka-dot dress. She cheered Henri Leconte, the dashing Frenchman, in his 7-6, 6-3, 7-6 loss to Ivan Lendl, then broke for tea and decided to call it a tennis day.

Connors, meanwhile, went to work right next door, on Court No. 1, beating tennis’ Prince of Whales. Jimbo saved Wimbledon from the “goon tennis” menace.

Playing on legs that should have been tired from his previous day’s efforts, the 34-year-old Connors sliced up massive Slobodan (Bobo) Zivojinovic, 7-6, 7-5, 6-3, to move into a comfortable, familiar place--the Wimbledon semifinals, where he has appeared 11 of the last 16 years.

On Friday, Connors will play Australian Pat Cash, who eliminated Mats Wilander in straight sets, 6-3, 7-5, 6-4. Lendl will face Stefan Edberg, who beat fellow Swede Anders Jarryd, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1, 6-3.

In the women’s quarterfinals Wednesday, all the favorites moved up a notch. Martina Navratilova mowed down Diane Balestrat of Australia, 6-2, 6-1, and will play old pal Chris Evert, a 6-1, 6-3 winner over West Germany’s Claudia Kohde-Kilsch, in the semifinals today.

It will be their seventh Wimbledon showdown. Navratilova won each of the five times they met in the final, while Evert won their two semifinal meetings.

This will be Martina vs. Chrissie, Chapter 73. Martina leads the series, 38-34.

West Germany’s Steffi Graf beat Argentina’s Gabriela Sabatini, 4-6, 6-1, 6-1, in the battle of teen queens and will play Pam Shriver in the other women’s semifinal match today. Shriver defeated Helena Sukova, 4-6, 7-6, 10-8.

The most enthusiastic crowd of the day, almost rowdy by Wimbledon standards, packed Court No. 1 to watch the master blaster challenge the old master.

Zivojinovic, a 6-foot 4-inch, 223-pound Yugoslav who plays tennis like a blacksmith, served 25 aces, giving him 74 for his last three matches.

Unfortunately for Bobo, the name of the game is tennis, not home-run derby. Connors’ finesse and change-of-pace game sent Zivojinovic reeling off to Monte Carlo, where he’ll commiserate with good friend Boris Becker.

During their first-set tiebreaker, when Zivojinovic scored his first point by whistling an ace past Connors, Jimbo shook his head in anger and said loudly to himself, “Goon tennis!”

It was like watching two painters. Connors worked with an easel and brushes, while Bobo used a power spray gun.

It was a mismatch. Zivojinovic’s basic strategy is to serve big and storm the net, a sight one local sportswriter likened to watching a cannon chasing the cannonball.

That’s about how futile Bobo’s style proved to be in this match. Connors used Zivojinovic as a stationary target at the net, passing him on the right and then on the left, time after time.

In the third set, after serving two aces of his own to go up, 4-3, Connors broke Zivojinovic with coffin-corner forehand passing shots drilled from the baseline.

Zivojinovic takes up a lot of room at the net, but his lateral mobility is only a shade better than the Wimbledon lawn statue of Fred Perry.

Zivojinovic went to the net 70 times in the match and won points on 31 of those approaches. Connors made only 25 trips to the net, good for 19 winners.

Connors, who came from two sets down to win a five-set classic over Mikael Pernfors Tuesday, once again seemed to get stronger as the match got longer.

“I’m biding my time much better,” Connors said. “Once I would play all five hours of a match in fifth gear. Now I start off like an old car, in first gear.”

Connors emphasized his point by making a noise like a clunker driving down the street, sputtering and coughing.

What kind of car is Jimbo?

“I don’t know,” he said, “but I’ve got a hell of an engine.”

An oldie but a goodie. Thirty-four is real old in tennis, and Connors is the kind of player who expends a lot of energy. The key to coming back strong the day after an emotionally and physically draining match, he said, was simply relaxing and playing his style of tennis.

“There were too many phone calls last night,” Connors said. “I turned my phone off . . . the reaction in the locker room (after Tuesday’s win) was respect and amazement, which is nice. But I’m still working. I had to get up again and play. I couldn’t take time to think about that (the win over Pernfors).”

As for his new, casual approach to the game, Connors said, “It’s like I’m playing myself a game in my mind. I don’t hit every ball (hard), I do something different (on every shot). Ten years ago, there was only one way. Now, maybe I’ll dump this one, slice this one . . . 8 or 10 years ago, I’d just blow it by you. Now, I feel I have strengthened my game adding a shot or two.”

The crowd on Court No. 1 seemed to be about equally divided in loyalty between Jimbo and Bobo and had to be asked several times by the chair umpire to pipe down. Once, as Connors was preparing to serve, someone shouted out, “Too old!”

Connors, assuming the man was not referring to a bottle of champagne, leveled a long, cold stare into the stands, then won the next four points to hold at 6-6 in the first set.

Then he went on to score a victory for all the creaky, cranky, lefty old-timers.

A younger, less consistent lefty bit the dust on Centre Court. Leconte, whose game can range from spectacular to spectacularly bad from moment-to-moment, simply wasn’t consistent enough to stand a chance against Lendl.

“This match is the best I have played this year, and the best I have ever played here,” Lendl said. “I am much tougher all around than I was two years ago when I played Leconte. Leconte is a flashy player who has some great shots, but he misses some easy ones. I am a player who plays very solid tennis without the spotlight on him, but I get the job done.”

Leconte, who said he appreciated the support of Princess Di, also pronounced Lendl ready to win Wimbledon.

“I think physically and tennistically he’s the best,” Leconte said, coining a new word. “I think that’s the first time he’s played so well on grass.”

Another veteran who is on a grass roll is Navratilova, who won yet another match in two sets.

“I’m just happy to be playing well,” she said. “Of course, it would make it more exciting if I don’t play well.”

In other words, if Navratilova plays her game today, Evert is likely to be in trouble. Whatever confidence Navratilova seemed to lack coming into this tournament, struggling without winning a tournament all year, she seems to have recovered nicely.

Pat Cash, Connors’ opponent Friday, broke Wilander, seeded third, nine times Wednesday.

“I think I played even better today than I did yesterday, which is great,” Cash said. “I’m surprised I’ve lifted my game so much in the last couple of days. I’ve got nothing to lose, so I just went out and hit the ball as well as I could.”