Manhattan Beach Tennis : Spotlight Turns to Austin in Her Comeback Attempt

If the 1987 Virginia Slims of Los Angeles was remembered as the final step of Steffi Graf’s ascendancy to the No. 1 spot in women’s tennis, then this year’s event may well be known as the second step of a comeback.

Tracy Austin’s.

“This is the biggest story in women’s tennis right now,” said Ted Tinling, international liaison for Virginia Slims.

That is, except for Graf’s quest for the Grand Slam and Olympic gold. Graf has won the first three legs of the Slam--the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon.

But she won’t be playing this week at the Manhattan Country Club, and neither will the former No. 1, Martina Navratilova, who withdrew from the tournament because of injuries.

Those who will be using Manhattan Beach as a U.S. Open tuneup are Chris Evert, Pam Shriver, Gabriela Sabatini, Lori McNeil and Zina Garrison. They are the top five seeded players in the event, and really, the only ones with a realistic shot at winning.

After Garrison, who is ranked No. 12, there is a big dropoff. The next three seeded players are Patty Fendick (No. 22 in the world), Anne Minter (No. 24) and Stephanie Rehe (No. 25).

Fendick was forced to default because of a leg injury in her opening singles match last week in San Diego, but Rehe comes to Los Angeles with some momentum, having defeated amateur Ann Grossman, 6-1, 6-1, Sunday to win the title in San Diego.

Austin, 25, used the tournament at the San Diego Tennis and Racquet Club to make her return to the women’s tour, in doubles. She made a decent showing with Robin White in a 7-6, 6-1 first-round loss to Betsy Nagelsen and Dinky van Rensburg.

At Manhattan Beach, Austin will play with Sweden’s Catarina Lindqvist against Jamie Kaplan and Themis Zambrzycki tonight in the first round. After this tournament, Austin plans to play mixed doubles with Ken Flach at the U.S. Open, and, eventually make her return in singles.

As for the long layoff because of injuries--it had been four years since she played her last sanctioned tournament--Austin says there wasn’t one day when she thought she wasn’t going to come back.

Apparently, a lot of others felt the same way. Wherever Austin has gone these last four years, there was always the same question: When are you going to come back?

Nagelsen has a theory.

“She accomplished something almost no one else has accomplished,” she said. “You don’t find many Americans who accomplished what she did in a short time. People remember that. I just think people love to see comebacks. And you know how Americans love to see comebacks.”

Tennis Notes

Today’s matches begin at 9 a.m., with the night session starting at 7. Singles qualifiers include Penny Barg, Amanda Coetzer, Leigh Anne Eldredge, Anna Ivan, Tina Mochizuki, Ronni Reis and Kim Steinmetz.