Tennis/ Thomas Bonk : She’s Trying to Talk, Rather Than Play, Good Game

Although she is only 27, Anne White has already finished one career and begun two others, so she has been busy.

White played 7 years on the pro tennis circuit before she retired, but that was long enough to reach the No. 19 ranking in singles, No. 9 in doubles and make the sport’s biggest fashion statement of the decade.

These days, White is a fledgling tennis commentator and takes acting lessons, although she was clearly at her dramatic best in 1985 at Wimbledon.

That was when she wore a skin-tight white body suit for a first-round match against Pam Shriver and created a Fleet Street sensation, at the same time taking the starch out of some pretty stiff shirts.

“I was 20 years ahead of my time,” White said. “It was fashion and function. You look at Flo-Jo (Florence Griffith Joyner) now and what she’s doing. She’s wearing body suits, 1-legged ones, whatever.

“The crowd, the fans loved it,” she said. “They don’t want to just see people just competing. They want to see personalities and high-tech sort of clothing.

“The big thing is, clothing can increase performance. Tennis players have never thought about wearing clothes that can increase performance or prevent injury, they always have worn clothing for product recognition.”

And, as any actress would, White appreciated the reaction from the audience.

“Wimbledon is so stuffy and it made a few people laugh,” she said. “Even Alan Mills, the referee, he gets a chuckle. Every time I see him, . . . he would get a little grin on his face, like, ‘OK, Anne, what are you up to now?’ ”

What she’s up to now, besides her acting classes four times a week, is her work for the USA network, which employed her at the U.S. Open. “For her first time out, she did a very credible job,” said Gordon Beck, the executive producer at USA. “There’s a good chemistry there. She can go places in the future, if she puts her mind to it.”

Said producer Steven Feder: “She had fresh, clear insight.”

White knew the Open would be a lot of work and was not disappointed.

“Fourteen-hour days, 10 days in a row,” she said. “If we hadn’t had rain the one middle Saturday, I would have died.

“I thought you had to compete to get such a thrill out of the U.S. Open. I had a real buzz doing it.”

As a former player, White is struck by the thought that she might be refused interviews by some players with whom she clashed on the court.

“Not that I was always surrounded by controversy, but I didn’t win any sportsmanship awards playing on the circuit,” she said.

Beck and the network want White back for another year and are aware of her acting plans. White, who won $395,506 on the pro tour, said she has lost the trimmings from her athletic career as she tries to forge another.

“The high-profile life style of an athlete is gone from my life,” she said. “My Mercedes is gone and life is a little different now. I drive a Jeep now.

“As for tennis, I’ve sort of shed that part of my life. It was a good growing experience, but it was very isolating. You have to be so focused to be an athlete.

“Traveling 8 or 9 months out of the year, it gets very lonely. As far as distinguishing the difference between a Wednesday and a Saturday, I couldn’t tell the difference. I know there are a lot of athletes who can relate to that.

“I’m working hard and I want to be taken seriously as an actress. Tennis isn’t a part of my life anymore. I’m a lot happier now.

“Hopefully, success is going to be sweeter the second time around.”

Someone may be in for a big payday at the Nabisco Masters. The $750,000 tournament is heavily weighted toward the winner, who could find his victory worth $1.15 million.

Mats Wilander, the world’s top-ranked player and the leading money winner this year with $881,731, heads a group of the first five players who have qualified for the 8-player field.

The other entrants so far are Stefan Edberg, Andre Agassi, Ivan Lendl and Boris Becker.

If a player goes undefeated from the round-robin matches through the final, he wins $315,000 and 1,000 Grand Prix bonus points. The leader in the bonus points will get $800,000 and Wilander holds a 969-point lead over Edberg.

The tournament, which signals the end of the men’s 1988 Grand Prix circuit, will be played Nov. 30-Dec. 5 at Madison Square Garden in New York.

The women’s version of a season-ending tournament begins Monday, now that the full field of players has been determined.

Helen Kelesi became the 16th and final entrant for the $1-million Virginia Slims Championships, even though she was a first-round loser last week at Chicago.

How could this happen? Simple. Larisa Savchenko, the only player who had a chance at bumping Kelesi, also lost in the first round. Even with Kelesi out early, Savchenko would have had to advance to the final to earn enough points to overtake Kelesi.

The top five players are Steffi Graf, Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert, Pam Shriver and Gabriela Sabatini.

Dream matchup: When Nestle’s sponsored a drawing to choose someone to play tennis against Jimmy Connors at the Tennis Club of Santa Barbara, the winner was 73-year-old Edith Van Winkle of Port Orange, Fla.

“This is better than winning the lottery,” she said.

The ongoing war between the Assn. of Tennis Professionals, the players’ group, and the Men’s Tennis Council, which runs the Grand Prix tour, got a little uglier last week.

In response to the ATP’s vow to start its own tour in 1990, the MTC said that the breakaway stars would have to qualify if they want to play in the Grand Slam events--Wimbledon and the U.S., French and Australian opens.

As expected, the players did not take this insult lightly. John McEnroe, on his way to winning the European Community Championship exhibition in Antwerp, said the MTC can’t be serious.

McEnroe said he would put up rival tournaments against the Grand Slam events “and put them in their proper place.” The rival tournaments would be the players’ majors, McEnroe said.

“I don’t think that without the players, you can have majors,” he said. “If you have the top 30 players play in one tournament and none in the Australian Open, that would make the French, Wimbledon and U.S. Open a little nervous.”

The United States will play its first-round Davis Cup match against Paraguay at Ft. Myers, Fla., Feb. 3-5.

There had been speculation that the best-of-5 match, which marks the reappearance of the United States in the World Group, would be played in the Palm Springs area, but the U.S. Tennis Assn. decided on Florida.

Tennis Notes

Californians Michael Chang and Patty Fendick, were named 1988 rookies of the year by Tennis magazine. Chang, 16, is from Placentia and Fendick, 23, is from Sacramento. . . . Gabriela Sabatini, the No. 4 player in the world, has withdrawn from the Federation Cup, Dec. 4-11 in Melbourne, Australia, which leaves No. 5 Pam Shriver as the top player. Steffi Graf, the No. 1 women’s player, wants to take December off, so she won’t be back to help West Germany defend its title. Martina Navratilova, No. 2, and Chris Evert, No. 3, have already said they won’t play either. . . . Qualifiers for the $100,000 Prudential-Bache Grand Champions finals Dec. 8-11 in Boca Raton, Fla., are Ross Case, Colin Dibley, Jaime Fillol, Tom Gullikson , Tim Gullikson, Bob Lutz, Frew McMillan, Ilie Nastase, Hank Pfister, Stan Smith, Sherwood Stewart, and Kim Warwick . . . Which colleges are offering tennis scholarships for 1989? The Southern California Tennis Assn. is sponsoring a meeting at 2 p.m. next Sunday at the Los Angeles Tennis Center where those attending can find out. Also, suggestions will be offered on how scholarship candidates can best present their athletic and academic qualifications. For information, call (213) 208-3838.