Shriver Is Looking Forward to Olympic Tennis

Pam Shriver is already having a big year and the Olympics are still four months away.

Shriver, 25, has won two tournaments this season, including one in Tokyo where she beat Helena Sukova in three sets. She is coming off a four-victory 1987 when she finished ranked fourth in the world.

A nine-year veteran, Shriver has never enjoyed herself more than she is now.

“I am playing consistently well,” Shriver said. “I’m getting a high percentage of serve-and-volley points. I’m keeping pressure on my opponent. I just want to keep this attitude up. It’s really a positive, fun attitude.

“The days I go out on the practice court and don’t want to be there are very few. It used to happen quite a bit.”

She expects to have fun in September when she, Zina Garrison and Elise Burgin represent the United States in the Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. Tennis is being played as a medal sport for the first time since 1924.

“It’s a strange team,” Shriver said. “A black, a Jew and a preppie. I feel fortunate to be on the team. There is no way I could turn that down. No way.”

She made the team because Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova both turned down the opportunity. The United States Tennis Association will decide which of the women will play doubles, although Shriver hopes she gets to play with her good friend Burgin, who grew up in Baltimore as Shriver did.

Evert and Navratilova are nearing the end of their careers. Evert has made many statements about the possibility of retiring and Navratilova is expected to follow soon after her long-time nemisis and friend stops competing.

When that happens, Shriver will be the most experienced player on the tour.

“I’m not looking forward to it because they are two of my best friends,” Shriver said. “On any given day, if I’m playing my best tennis, I can beat them, especially Chris. I haven’t beaten Martina in years.

“But if it is not them, it’s somebody else. There is (Gabriela) Sabatini, (Steffi) Graf. It’s never easy at the top. Now there is enough flavor around it is not boring. You have the two old folks, the two young folks and the middle-aged people who are hanging in there.”

Shriver also knows as soon as Evert and Navratilova depart she will be getting inquiries into her own retirement. She has thought about it, mainly because “I get asked about it a bit.”

“To me it’s pretty self-explanatory” she said. “You look at your age, you look at how you’re feeling physically, emotionally, how into it you are. Are you still determined? What are your results? What is your ranking?

“Hopefully, you will be able to have enough perspective to realize you have had your best days, you are not going to win any more big titles. I hope it will crystalize and be a very plain and simple decision.”

Shriver, who pays attention to the world around her, knows it doesn’t always work that way for professionals at the top of the sports world.

“It is an individual thing and depends on what you have to go back to, depends on how filled your life can be when you are through,” she said.

Shriver’s life doesn’t end on the court. She is a vice-president of the Women’s International Tennis Association and in that position recently conducted interviews to help the WITA find a new marketing firm. She enjoyed the business work, “weighing the pluses and minuses. It was a big decision. It was fun. I enjoyed it.

“I lucked out. People ask me all the time about college. The practical education, the common sense education I have right now, is much greater than almost all college students get. It’s all practical application. It’s a different atmosphere for learning but if you are willing to learn you do.”

Shriver still has goals in tennis and one of them is to win a tournament the whole world has heard of rather than the smaller tour events known only on a local level.

“I want to win a Grand Slam event in singles,” she said. “I’ve never won one. I’ll keep going until that happens.”