Australian Open Tennis Championships : Graf Looks Tough, but Lendl May Be in Tough

The $1.5-million Australian Open, where it all began for Steffi Graf and where it has never happened for Ivan Lendl, begins Monday on the hard playing surfaces at the National Tennis Center.

Graf should feel right at home. This is where she started banging her forehand last year, on the way to winning the Grand Slam. When she got here, stepping off the plane from West Germany after a 28-hour flight, Graf said she felt no pressure to repeat.

“I have done and achieved everything I can,” she said.

The same cannot be said for Lendl, who has never won the Australian and has played in the final only once. Lendl lost to Mats Wilander in 1983, but that was on another surface, the grass courts at Kooyong.

Last year, however, the Australian Open said so long to Kooyong and moved to the National Tennis Center at Flinders Park, which features the Rebound Ace hard-court surface. Wilander defeated Pat Cash in the final and went on to win 2 other Grand Slam events, the French Open and the U.S. Open, replacing Lendl as No. 1 in the world rankings.

Across the international dateline, it may prove more difficult to know what day it is for Wilander and Graf than to win in the early going. Think of it this way: It’s tomorrow right now Down Under but 5 hours earlier than it is in Los Angeles. Thus, if it’s noon Sunday in Los Angeles, it’s 7 a.m. Monday here.

Sound simple? Consider the first-round opponents that Wilander and Graf drew. Wilander, the top-seeded player, opens against Tobias Svantesson, who is ranked 95th in the world.

The top-seeded Graf plays Australian Kerry Anne Guse in the first round.

Lendl, ranked second in the world, plays a qualifier in the first round, and if the seedings hold true, will face 10th-seeded Amos Mansdorf of Israel in the fourth round, which is where the 2-week tournament really begins with its toughest matches.

If the seedings hold up, Wilander will face his first serious test against 15th-seeded John Fitzgerald of Australia in the fourth round. Ninth-seeded Miloslav Mecir should meet eighth-seeded Yannick Noah, third-seeded Boris Becker should play 14th-seeded Jonas B. Svensson and 12-seeded Mikael Pernfors should play sixth-seeded Henri Leconte.

Barring upsets, the fourth round also marks the beginning of difficulties for players in the bottom half of the draw. Cash, 13th-seeded, would meet fourth-seeded Stefan Edberg. Other fourth-round matches would include fifth-seeded Jakob Hlasek against 11th-seeded Thomas Muster and seventh-seeded John McEnroe against 10th-seeded Aaron Krickstein.

Martina Navratilova, seeded second behind Graf, plays Andrea Betzner of West Germany in the first round and third-seeded Gabriela Sabatini plays Ceclia Dahlman of Sweden. Graf figures to meet Sabatini in the semifinals. In the bottom half of the draw, Navratilova should play fourth-seeded Pam Shriver in the other semifinal.