Tennis : Players Looking to Change Their Image

So what if Ivan Lendl pulled out of the Volvo/Los Angeles tournament at the last minute two years ago?

So what if he did it again last week?

When the $425,000 Grand Prix event begins Monday at the Los Angeles Tennis Center at UCLA, three of its top four players--Lendl, Pat Cash and Aaron Krickstein--will have pulled out, leaving only one player, Andre Agassi, ranked in the top 21 in the field of 32.

So what does that make this Volvo tournament? Will it be a who wins?/who cares? week that only seems to last about a month?

Maybe so, but the Assn. of Tennis Professionals is going to try something difficult to ensure that such negative feedback does not occur in the future. They are going to try to change your mind.

Paul Annacone, 25, who is playing in his seventh year on the Grand Prix circuit, believes that the time has come for the players to put a little more topspin on their image. That is one of the intentions of the ATP, which includes most of the world’s best male players and plans to form a tour in 1990.

“There are so many events, so many tournaments, so many exhibitions and so many players playing, if you’re not a top 5 or top 10 player, the general public doesn’t know who you are,” Annacone said. “It belittles the rest of the sport because they don’t see how tough it really is out there.”

One of the aims of the ATP is to wrest control of the game from the International Tennis Federation. On their own tour, the players say, they will play fewer tournaments, but with more so-called name players in them.

There is no real off-season now. The 1988 season is so long, in fact, that it actually began in 1987, on Dec. 28. It won’t end until Dec. 12 when there will have been 75 tournaments played in 23 countries.

“Due to the fact that there are so many events, the level of play isn’t probably as good as it could be,” Annacone said. “I think a lot of guys play hurt, I think a lot of guys play when they don’t want to play. It’s like a huge conspiracy. I don’t think it’s done purposefully, I just think it ends up hurting the players more than anybody else.

“What the players want to do is to build up the whole persona of men’s tennis, the whole field of men’s tennis so people know who Paul Annacone is, so the people know who Marty Davis is, who Horst Skoff is, so the people know who some of the players are who never get heard from.

“There are so many events, half the people don’t know who even wins. They don’t know who won at Stratton, who won at Indian Wells, who won in Barcelona. People have to know that the whole criteria of tennis is not based on one week or not based on one month. It’s based on a year-long thing and there are a lot of guys who can play this game.”

Annacone is playing Volvo/Los Angeles again, the tournament he won in 1985 when he upset Stefan Edberg in three tiebreaker sets.

“Me, a nobody at the time, playing incredible tennis,” Annacone said. “It’s matches like that we need people to be aware of. That’s what I’m talking about.”

Many of the players at the Volvo have a different recognition factor from the top 5 or 10 players, Annacone admitted, but he said tennis’ best players have earned their public perception.

“Those guys have proved it at the major events,” he said. “Just look at the finalists of these tournaments: Lendl and Wilander, U.S. Open; Becker and Edberg, Wimbledon; Wilander and Leco1853121836French Open; and Wilander and Cash at the Australian.

“Those guys are a little bit better. The top five guys are a little bit better, but from there on in, it’s so close. I mean, if you look at some of the results throughout the year, you shake your head. How does Roger Smith beat Ivan Lendl? How does Wilander lose first round in three tournaments?

“Somehow, we’ve got to get to the situation so that instead of people saying, ‘Oh, God, Lendl lost a match today,’ they say ‘Who is this Roger Smith guy who is so good?’

“Instead of projecting it negatively--like ‘I can’t believe Wilander lost to that guy!’--we want the public to say, ‘Wow, who is that guy? Another really good player.’

“That’s what the association is trying to do. Instead of making the top players terrible when they lose, build up the other guys.”

So what is the way to look at the Volvo this week?

“Let’s maybe see the next Andre Agassi come out of the field or see someone else do something really well,” Annacone said. “Let’s see how McEnroe and Agassi and the top guys do, but let’s see if we can pull a few more guys out of quote-unquote mediocrity into the elite group.”

Even with so few of the top-ranked players at the tournament here, there are two reasons it’s still likely to be a popular event: Agassi and McEnroe. You can be sure that promoter Bob Kramer is hoping neither one loses early.

Fade-out: Agassi’s faded blue denim shorts are on their last legs. They’ve been all the rage, but Agassi has a new deal with Nike to wear a different line of tennis clothing.

Of course, this is major culture shock here. Part of Agassi’s techno-pop reputation on the courts has been his punky look--shaggy bleached hair and denim shorts being the biggest parts of his act.

But are you ready for this? Agassi’s new shorts are actually going to be made of, gasp, polyester ! Denim to polyester? Is he joining the PGA?

Agassi may be wearing the new shorts here. Don’t say you weren’t warned.