U.S. OPEN : Just Like Mac, She’s Smashing : Mandlikova Assessed Game Penalty, Loses

Oh, that John McEnroe, the women players laughed. There he goes again.

They watched his now-infamous outburst on Saturday and some were amused. Others were disgusted. And, almost every player questioned about the incident pointed out that women’s tennis almost never has those kinds of problems.

Then, Hana Mandlikova took the court on Monday and turned what looked like a routine victory into a mini-McEnroe spectacle. She swore. She even smashed her racket on a sideline scoreboard.

She was, to be sure, pulling off a pretty decent McEnroe imitation. But, unlike McEnroe, she turned the day into a three-ring circus, leading the press through a one-sided chase which eventually ended up in a bathroom.

Mandlikova was on the verge of closing out a fourth-round victory over West Germany’s Claudia Kohde-Kilsch, leading, 7-6, 4-2. First, Mandlikova’s game unraveled, quickly followed by her psyche.

Mandlikova received her first code violation, a warning, for complaining about being called for a foot fault in the first set.

When tour referee Georgina Clark heard there was a code violation, she ventured out to Court 16.

“I went there because I heard the match was in a slightly fragile state,” Clark said at a press conference at the National Tennis Center.

Then, at 1-1 in the third set, Mandlikova exploded because of a perceived bad call after she lost the game. Chair umpire Tom Cook assessed Mandlikova a point penalty, giving Kohde-Kilsch a 15-0 lead in the third game. Kohde-Kilsch, seeded No. 9, took advantage and won it to go ahead, 2-1.

On the next change-over, Mandlikova smashed her racket on the scoreboard, which was her third code violation, meaning it was a game penalty. So, Kohde-Kilsch led, 3-1.

“Why don’t you just default me?” Mandlikova asked Clark.

Clark later said she didn’t default Mandlikova because the No. 4-seeded player didn’t do anything to merit such action. Although Mandlikova went for the lines in the next game, she lost it, and basically that was the match as Kohde-Kilsch won, 6-7, 6-4, 6-1.

“She was going for everything in the next game (after the third penalty),” Kohde-Kilsch said. “After that, she gave up completely.”

Compared to McEnroe, the penalty levied on Mandlikova was next to nothing. She was fined $500 for her on-court behavior. Mandlikova may appeal the fine to the Women’s International Tennis Assn. (WITA) Disciplinary Committee, which next meets in New York during the Virginia Slims Championships in November.

Unlike the men’s tour, the decision-making committee is chaired by a player, Christiane Jolissaint, and includes four other players. Under WITA rules, the fines for on-court incidents are not cumulative, so Mandlikova’s third-offense fine is just $500.

This is the second time in a less than a month that Mandlikova has had a run-in with the WITA. After an early-round loss to Barbara Potter in Toronto, Mandlikova failed to appear for her post-match press conference. Although she could have faced $250 fine, tour spokesperson Maureen Hanlon chose not to report the incident.

After Monday’s adventure, Mandlikova again declined to meet the press. This will result in a $250 fine. After her doubles match, at least 15 reporters followed her to get a comment. Trying to evade the press, Mandlikova ran into a bathroom and slammed the door, swearing at the assembled media.

However, one reporter had already followed her into the bathroom and received this comment:

“If somebody could screw me out of a match on bad calls and then take a game away when I don’t deserve it, then they can have the match.”

The best women’s match of the day, No. 7 Zina Garrison against No. 11 Lori McNeil, unfortunately, was relegated to an outside court.

For those curious about the Garrison-McNeil outcome, the fourth-round contest could be found off center-stage, over on Court 3.

“Yeah, I don’t think that was very good,” Garrison said. “I’m sorry on the tournament’s part. I think Lori and I both are two very exciting players, and I thought we should at least get a grandstand court. Court 3, I was really shocked when I heard that last night.”

Garrison and McNeil are a successful doubles team and grew up in Houston, coming out of the same public parks program under coach John Wilkerson. And, both are still coached by Wilkerson.

Matches between Garrison and McNeil are always close, and Monday was no exception. Garrison reached match point in the second set and looked as if she might record her first victory over McNeil on the pro tour.

However, McNeil saved two match points in the third set, with the second coming when her shot hit the net-cord and fell over on Garrison’s side. Stunned and demoralized, Garrison couldn’t believe it. McNeil broke serve to send the set to a tiebreaker and won the match, 7-6, 3-6, 7-6.

“Every time I watch her play, it’s like she gets the luckiest shots,” Garrison said. “I don’t know, it’s just a bad break for me. I just felt that I worked really hard. And I think that I do deserve the match. I know when that happened it was pretty much a big letdown.”

The other top-seeded women to advance were No. 1 Steffi Graf, No. 2 Martina Navratilova, No. 3 Chris Evert, No. 5 Pam Shriver, No. 6 Helena Sukova and No. 8 Gabriela Sabatini.

Of the top three, Evert was expected to have the toughest match because Manuela Maleeva has given her difficulty in the past. At the recent Federation Cup competition in August, Evert struggled through a tough, three-setter against the 20-year-old from Bulgaria. This time, she needed only two sets, winning, 7-5, 6-4.

Graf, who has lost one match all year, often has more trouble against players who mix up their shots, hitting a variety of slice and spin. And No. 13 Sylvia Hanika, once ranked in the top five, can hit junk better than almost anyone else on the tour.

For the first time at the Open, Graf was pushed a bit, before coming through to win, 7-5, 6-2.

Navratilova had little trouble against Sweden’s Caterina Lindqvist, who has given her problems in the past. Monday, Navratilova defeated Lindqvist, 6-0, 6-4.

Shriver defeated Jana Novotna of Czechoslovakia, 6-3, 7-6.

Navratilova meets Sabatini, who defeated No. 12 Bettina Bunge, 1-6, 6-1, 6-1, in a quarterfinal match today.