Off-Court Star Hopes to Serve Fans an Ace at Slims Tourney

Spectators at the Manhattan Beach Country Club will see Chris Evert, Gabriela Sabatini and Pam Shriver in tennis action this week. They probably won’t notice Jan Diamond, which is fine with her. She’s the woman behind the scenes of the $300,000 Virginia Slims of Los Angeles.

While Diamond scrambles to make sure everything is going smoothly at the tournament Monday through Saturday , fans will watch some of the world’s top players rip forehand shots or smash volleys.

Surrounding the court action will be ushers and food vendors to serve fans, and children in tennis attire ready to serve players.

The goal is a flawless atmosphere. Most fans will not think twice about how it got that way.

That’s Diamond’s job.

For three months before the event, she spends many hours inside a trailer surrounded by fancy sports cars in the parking lot of the posh club.

Diamond, 30, looks incredibly peppy considering the pressure of her job.

And there is pressure--like the big name dropping out of the tournament at a late date.

“I got a bit of bad news today,” Diamond said as she looked around her cubicle office and ignored the ringing telephone. “Martina (Navratilova) pulled out because she pulled a hamstring and hip flexor. At first I was obviously disappointed, but with this tournament it’s not that disappointing because we have so many good players.”

The news only three weeks before the area’s largest professional women’s tennis tournament was obviously a jolt, but Diamond, a confident tournament director, has learned to deal with crisis.

“She still has a great draw,” said Renee Shallouf, administrative assistant for communications for the Women’s International Tennis Assn., formerly the Women’s Tennis Assn.

The Virginia Slims circuit was brought to Los Angeles in 1972 by Diamond’s husband, Jerry, who was director of the WTA for 11 years and is part-owner of a San Francisco sports promotion firm that owns the Manhattan Beach event.

At first, the tournament was played at the Sports Arena. Then it moved to the Forum, and for the last six years has been played at the Manhattan Beach Country Club.

“It’s probably second only to Virginia Slims of New York, only because New York is the last event of the year and it’s the championship tournament, the finale,” Jerry Diamond said. “Players love it because it’s like a vacation. Manhattan Beach is a perfect area for tennis.”

This year’s field includes three of the world’s top five players: Evert (No. 3), Shriver (4) and Sabatini (5).

That’s why Diamond wasn’t particularly distressed that Navratilova, who lost to Evert in the semifinals last year, was forced to withdraw.

“I think we’d do a lot better if Martina was here,” Diamond said. “But if she’s not in shape to play, it’s better if she doesn’t. I remember the first tournament I ran. The player field wasn’t very good, and Martina didn’t want to play, for whatever reason. Jerry asked her as a favor to please play, and she did. It was a great 3-setter against Claudia Kohde-Kilsch, but (Navratilova) lost in the first round.

“When your top player loses in the first round, that’s grounds for suicide!”

Diamond said dealing with players can be stressful, although it’s only a small part of her duties.

She’s responsible for advertising, ticket sales, ball kids, portable toilets, food vendors.

“I probably left at least 20 things out. The week of the tournament I’m ‘Mother Octopus’ with tentacles in every pot, and 10 times I’ll want to pull my hair out.”

Why does she go through the 12-hour workdays and pressure?

“It’s like putting on a good party,” Diamond said. “When you go out during the finals and everything is going well, you take a real pride, you start bursting with joy. It’s great.”

She’s experienced that feeling a lot, although she says it’s uncommon that everything goes perfectly: “When something goes wrong, if it’s a flop, it’s magnified. It can be a very depressing thing, very emotional too. Very emotional .”

Based on its history, the Manhattan Beach event should be a success, although it is a laborious tournament to organize compared to some.

Diamond’s assistant, Lara Walker, says the Los Angeles Virginia Slims is unquestionably the most difficult tournament Diamond runs. On top of that, she says, this year has been busier than ever.

“This is a lot more work than people imagine it to be,” Walker said. “People take it for granted when they’re out on a nice day watching the matches and all the tents are set up and everybody is smiling. But it’s really exhausting work.”

Diamond has been doing the work for eight years. As a student at San Francisco State University, she planned a career in television broadcasting.

But in 1980, she met Jerry--whom she married in 1985--while working part time promoting an auto show in San Francisco. He offered her a job running a tennis tournament in Atlanta.

Diamond accepted, but never considered it a career.

“I actually thought tennis was the most boring sport in the world second to golf,” she said, laughing.

The second tournament Diamond was involved with was the Virginia Slims of San Francisco in 1981. She says that’s when she realized that she had a lot to learn about tennis.

“I had no idea what to do,” she said. “I was a wreck. I didn’t even know how to keep score. People would say, ‘What round did she lose in?’ and I didn’t know what they meant.”

She’s since mastered tennis terminology and plays the game.

Her favorite job, though, is behind the scenes as “Mother Octopus.”

“I do get burned out,” she said. “Sometimes I have to sit and reevaluate why I’m in this business.”

Besides Los Angeles, Diamond runs the Virginia Slims of Oakland and is involved with the Virginia Slims of Chicago, although she doesn’t serve as tournament director for that event.

Each tournament takes about six months of preparation and three months of on-site work.

“It’s not easy,” Diamond said “But it’s such a crazy, fun life.”