WIMBLEDON TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS : Even Rain Follows Form on First Day : Lendl, Cash, Becker Don’t Waste Time; Connors Has to Wait

The tournament began with its small intrigues--the Sanchez brothers grudgingly played each other on court 14 after sister Arantxa’s match on court 12--but soon enough yielded to tradition. The seeded men’s players won and then it rained.

It is not much of an opening day at the All England Lawn Tennis Club at Wimbledon if play is not suspended. Regulars recall that at least the last four tournaments here were thus interrupted. Monday’s rain-call, after about six hours of overcast weather, occurred later than usual, was brief, but happened nonetheless. The TV monitors in the press room lingered briefly on referee Alan Mills’ worried mug and then were quickly switched to the cricket match.

The suspension left tennis to wonder one more day about the physical rehabilitation of Jimmy Connors, who has been testing a sore foot on Wimbledon’s grass. His match with Leif Shiras was delayed a day.

Connors, a popular story here last year when he unexpectedly reached the semifinals, had come here hinting at retirement. His lingering foot injury kept him out of the French Open and, he had suggested, might prevent him from playing at Wimbledon. But the sod has evidently been kind to his 35-year-old foot and he became an eager entry.

The condition remains mysterious when compared with top-seeded Ivan Lendl’s, who has been troubled by a pulled pectoral muscle, suffered in his French Open disappointment. Lendl, who has yet to win a Grand Slam tournament this year (and never a Wimbledon), had even been knocked around in pre-Wimbledon exhibitions. His coach, Tony Roche, contributed to the cloud hanging over him by saying nobody would know how severe his injury was until he actually played. So Lendl walked through Britain’s David Felgate, 6-4, 6-1, 6-3, in 84 minutes. Conclusion: not severe.

Felgate, a wild-card entry, was not expected to give the top-ranked player much trouble. This was his first singles play at Wimbledon. But few could have given Lendl a much better match Monday. The Czech expatriate, who is hoping for U.S. citizenship so he can play Olympic tennis, fired 18 aces in 13 serving games.

Said Felgate: “There are a lot of guys who serve hard, but I couldn’t pick it. I tried everything--stood a long way back--but it just didn’t make a lot of difference.”

Lendl will have tougher competition, of course, but he was at least reassured about his chest injury. “Aw, it’s OK,” he said. “It won’t bother my golf game.”

The two-time finalist continues to take treatment--”ultrasonic, laser, ice, everything which comes my way”--but affected a complete cure on court No. 1. As usual, it will be the dreaded grass surface he must overcome, not any sore muscle.

At stake for Lendl is not just the Wimbledon bugaboo, although that is plenty enough. Unless he advances further than second-seeded Mats Wilander in this tournament--Wilander has won both the Australian and French Opens--Lendl’s No. 1 ranking must be suspect. But Lendl, who lives in walled seclusion in Greenwich, Conn., sort of promised that won’t happen.

If he drops to No. 2?

“I think I would sic my dogs on myself.”

Lendl has six German shepherds, so he obviously has some motivation here.

Centre Court was an even less curious affair. Defending champion Pat Cash beat Todd Woodbridge, 6-1, 6-1, 6-2, in that court’s ceremonial first match of the tournament and then sailed a checkered headband into the stands. “I’ve brought a couple hundred of them altogether,” said the fourth-seeded Cash, who means to stay in the tournament long enough to rid himself of at least some of them.

Third-seeded Stefan Edberg returned from the rain delay on Centre Court to beat Guy Forget, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. And sixth-seeded Boris Becker, who had won this tournament twice before bombing out in the second round last year, had 20 aces and proceeded through John Frawley, 6-3, 6-1, 6-2, so confident of victory he even gave a point away.

“I saw the ball in,” said Becker, shrugging.

Somebody said, “You would not do that if . . . “ and Becker answered, “it were 5-all? No.”

Becker is here with somewhat lowered expectations, at least from the previous two years when his match was the first of the fortnight on Centre Court.

“Everybody knows I’m quite good on grass,” he said, “I’ve won this two years. But everybody now knows I’m human. I can lose, it’s a matter of time.”

He is not here without the usual interest of the tabloid reporters, though, who, apparently slumbering, waited until the last interview of the day to inquire of a player’s girlfriend. Becker shut the questioner down easier than he had Frawley.

Now, about that Sanchez clan, the clay-court specialists from Barcelona, Spain.

The family, mom and dad, sis and the two boys, stayed in three hotel rooms, Emilio Jr. and Javier sharing one of them. Arantxa, who had beaten Chris Evert in the French Open, quickly lost her first-round match to Kumiko Okamoto, allowing the whole family immediately afterward to see the brothers go head to head for the fifth time--the head-to-head sheet coyly listed the meetings, Sanchez, 4-0. Wimbledon had scheduled it so.

Emilio, three years his brother’s senior, won, 6-3, 6-3, 6-4, and then said, “He was supposed to be better than that on grass.”

Javier said it was hard playing somebody he regarded as a coach. Then they all went to dinner.