Tennis : At Least, There Isn’t Anything Dull About the Becker-McEnroe Rivalry

The alarm was sounded by the public and media just after almost being lulled to sleep by too many base-line rallies between Ivan Lendl and Mats Wilander at the French Open.

Or was that Lendl and Miloslav Mecir? Or, could it have been Lendl and Joakim Nystrom?

In any event, the concern in some quarters was that Nystrom, Mecir, Wilander and others of their stripe were killing interest in men’s tennis with the dull, methodical style they share.

But wait. Men’s tennis lives. The clay-court season mercifully ended, for all practical purposes, with the French Open, and that helped. And there’s a bright new face, Pat Cash, winner at Wimbledon. That helped, too.

But resuscitation was provided largely by a promising new rivalry. Oddly enough, it developed in the match some thought would never end, a 6-hour 40-minute contest between John McEnroe and Boris Becker two weekends ago in the Davis Cup relegation round between the United States and West Germany at Hartford, Conn. It’s a rivalry complete with animosity on and off the court, and grudging respect by each athlete for the other’s talent.

They have played just three times, but their last two meetings have produced a match determined by a third-set tiebreaker, at Stratton Mountain, Vt., last year, and now a history-making Davis Cup epic.

In Hartford, McEnroe and Becker exchanged words during their match, and Becker became unnerved by McEnroe’s yelling, screaming and crowd-inciting tactics. But he never completely unraveled.

“Well, I have admiration for the tennis player, but I feel sorry for the human being,” Becker said of McEnroe. “I guess you know why. I don’t want to comment further on that. He knows exactly what I think of him, and to me it’s enough. I don’t want to talk about him.”

Becker, however, couldn’t resist one quick jab.

“Before, when he was there, everybody couldn’t wait until he was gone,” Becker said. “When he was not there, everybody said, ‘We miss him.’ ”

Against Tim Mayotte in the fifth and deciding match, Becker’s poise deserted him after an incident in the second set. After Becker had held serve with an overhead smash, he tossed a ball over his shoulder, without looking, in the general direction of the U.S. players’ box. The ball landed in McEnroe’s lap. McEnroe threw it back and it landed in front of Becker.

Becker, visibly angered, walked over to the umpire’s stand and exchanged words with U.S. captain Tom Gorman, giving him a slight push.

Despite the incident, despite the excited crowd and despite an inspired effort by Mayotte, Becker managed to hold on for the victory, giving West Germany a chance to compete for the Davis Cup in 1988.

“(Becker) has the feel of the champion,” McEnroe said at Hartford. “You have a sense that he doesn’t really respect you the way you think he should. I’m sure that Bjorn (Borg) and Jimmy (Connors) felt the same way about me when I was coming up. It’s the kind of thing that ticks you off. Players like him only come along once every 10 years.”

Becker, a 19-year-old seemingly going on 28, realizes the nature of the rivalry.

“I understand what he means,” Becker said recently about McEnroe’s Davis Cup comments. “A lot of times he and I get along very well. . . . The only time we have trouble is when we play. Then, on the court and for a few days after, it’s not very good.”

To rejoin the World Group in 1989 Davis Cup play, the United States must win the American zone in 1988. It won’t be easy because Argentina will most likely be the final obstacle in the United States’ attempt to climb out of tennis oblivion.

It gets worse. The match will be held in Argentina. And it doesn’t take a tennis genius to guess that clay will be the surface. Clay is sometimes known to produce a deadening effect on American male players.

Waiting for the Americans in Argentina, actually, waiting to pull off another ambush, are clay-court specialists Martin Jaite and Horacio de la Pena. McEnroe won’t soon forget De la Pena, who caused McEnroe’s first-round exit in Paris.

Tennis Notes Argentina, Mexico and the United States are among the teams to watch in the Pan American Games tennis competition, starting Thursday at the Indianapolis Sports Center. USC’s Luke Jensen, Stanford’s Patrick McEnroe and Georgia-bound Al Parker are representing the United States in the men’s draw. Miami’s Ronni Reis, Kentucky’s Sonia Hahn and Trinity’s Jane Holdren are on the women’s squad. . . . Stanford women’s coach Frank Brennan was named national coach of the year by the Intercollegiate Tennis Coaches’ Assn. Brennan, who guided the Cardinal to the NCAA team title this year, also won the award in 1982. Stanford has won the NCAA title the last two years, three of the last four, and four of the last six. NCAA singles champion Patty Fendick of Stanford was given the Arthur Ashe Sportsmanship Award and senior-player-of-the-year award by the ITCA. Fendick turned pro before Wimbledon, shortly after winning her second straight NCAA singles title.