L.A. Tennis : Davis Struggles but He Reaches Quarterfinals

From his seat in the grandstand, Marty Davis crossed his deeply tanned arms and watched his buddy, Guy Forget, play a tiebreaker Thursday afternoon in a match against Andre Agassi.

Davis clapped when Forget won a point. When Davis looked around, he saw that no one else was clapping.

“Somebody’s got to root for the old guy,” Davis said.

Sure. Forget is 22. Agassi is 17. They’re both on their way up. At the other end of the actuarial charts, Davis is 28 and trying to hold his own.

So far in the Volvo/Los Angeles tennis tournament, it’s been a struggle, but Davis should be used to that by now.

Of four qualifiers, Davis is the only one left. He has reached today’s quarterfinal match on the Grandstand Court against Tim Wilkison and has done it the hard way.

First, Davis had to win three qualifying matches to get into the main draw. Davis has since played five sets in two matches and all five were decided by tiebreakers--including a 7-6, 6-7, 7-6 win over Kevin Curren Wednesday which moved him into the quarterfinals.

What has the world’s 107th-ranked player learned from all this?

“I’ve been down and I’ve been up, so I’ll just ride that wave as long as I can,” said Davis, an accomplished surfer equally adept at hanging tough as hanging 10.

Soon there will be a surfing trip to Fiji, right after tournaments in Australia, Tokyo and Hong Kong. Is that Vienna calling?

When tennis calls, Davis usually answers. He played in 25 tournaments last year but won just $91,000, which isn’t quite half what Ivan Lendl won in a week at the U.S. Open.

“It wasn’t a very good year for me,” said Davis, whose ranking dropped him so low that he must qualify for a number of tournaments this year.

He lost four consecutive first-round matches last year in third-set tiebreakers after holding match point in each of them. One of those matches was in the Los Angeles tournament.

“It’s kind of ironic that my tiebreaker luck would be changing here now,” Davis said.

A former All-American at California, Davis lives in Harbor Bay Isle near Oakland. Married for two years, he said he spends only about 10 weeks a year at home with his wife, Jill.

“I’ve sacrificed any kind of home life and I’m scrambling in the sense that I’m worrying about making enough money to make ends meet, but I work hard and I play when I can,” he said.

Wilkison, a scrambler himself, is a year younger and three places higher than Davis in the rankings at No. 104.

“You should beat the guy if you’re ranked higher,” said Wilkison, who defeated Gary Muller of South Africa, 6-4, 6-4, Thursday. “But it’s a big match for both of us.”

Davis said there will be no surprises in his match with Wilkison. Even though they have never met before, each is well acquainted with the other’s game.

“We’ve both been around too long for that,” Davis said. “It’s going to be two blue-collar veterans slugging it out.”

Davis said he might get some support from the fans at UCLA’s Los Angeles Tennis Center who remember him from his college career.

“Maybe they’ll have long memories,” he said.

But what if they boo him? After all, he played at Cal. But Davis said he never won a match playing at UCLA.

“Maybe I’ll get some sympathy,” he said.

Unseeded Paul Annacone worked his way into the quarterfinals and a date with top-seeded Stefan Edberg tonight with a 6-2, 7-6 victory over Derrick Rostagno Thursday.

Annacone, who had 10 aces against Rostagno, came back from a 4-2 deficit.

Edberg holds a 2-1 advantage in his meetings with Annacone, but Annacone defeated him here in three tiebreaker sets in the 1985 final.

Agassi, who is also unseeded, scored another upset in the afternoon session with a 6-3, 7-6 victory over Forget, seeded No. 5. Agassi will play David Pate, No. 3, in another quarterfinal match.

Brad Gilbert was forced into a tiebreaker before he defeated unseeded Kelly Evernden of New Zealand, 6-3, 7-6, Thursday night.

The second-seeded Gilbert, who won the tiebreaker, 7-4, will face Eliot Teltscher in today’s second quarterfinal match on the Stadium Court, following Pate vs. Agassi.

Gilbert said he was distracted in the second set with the score 6-3, 5-4, when tennis great Fred Perry was introduced to the crowd.

“All of a sudden, out of nowhere, they picked a heck of a time to introduce Fred Perry,” Gilbert said. “I thought it was bad timing. “At 5-4 I’m going to serve for the match. I think I lost concentration for awhile. And at 6-3, 5-4, you don’t want to lose concentration.”