Tennis : Recent Record on Clay Makes Mancini a French Open Favorite

Alberto Mancini, a 20-year-old Argentine who likes to perform feats on clay, is suddenly one of the favorites to win the French Open.

Mancini has jumped from No. 31 to No. 13 in the rankings after beating Mats Wilander and Boris Becker to win the clay-court Monte Carlo Open in April and following it up by defeating Andre Agassi to win the Italian Open on clay in Rome.

His victory over Agassi establishes Mancini as one of the favorites for the French Open, which begins Monday at Roland Garros Stadium in Paris.

“After winning at Monte Carlo and Rome, the two most important clay court tournaments after Roland Garros, I have a lot of confidence,” said Mancini, who is seeded No. 12 in the French Open.

Wilander, the defending French Open champion, is the No. 4-seeded player in Paris, after top-seeded Ivan Lendl, second-seeded Boris Becker and third-seeded Stefan Edberg. Agassi is fifth-seeded.

John McEnroe, who was sixth-seeded, withdrew because of a bad back, so the other seeded players moved up a notch. Jakob Hlasek is now sixth-seeded and Tim Mayotte is seventh.

Wilander said Mancini is definitely a threat to win the French.

“He will give a lot of players difficulties,” Wilander said. “He plays with so much speed from both sides. It’s hard to say if his forehand or backhand is better.”

Lendl, the world’s top-ranked player, skipped the Italian Open, but is rated by most players as the favorite in Paris.

“I saw Lendl play at Key Biscayne, Hamburg and Forest Hills this year,” Mancini said. “He’s probably the best clay court player in the world right now.”

The news for the U.S. Davis Cup team may not be so good. Its semifinal match in West Germany will be played on an indoor felt carpet, which might not be the kind of surface that suits Agassi, the No. 2 singles player.

“The first word is that it’s fast with low bounces,” U.S. Davis Cup Captain Tom Gorman said. “We’re trying to find more about it so the players know what they’re in for.”

The surface that the West Germans have chosen is called Pegulan and it will be laid out in Munich’s Olympiahalle for the July 21-23 confrontation between two of the world’s tennis superpowers.

Since Agassi’s game is more effective on slower surfaces and because he likes to take the ball quickly on the rise, he could be more affected by the Munich carpet than McEnroe or the doubles team of Ken Flach and Robert Seguso, who thrive on faster courts.

However, Gorman cautioned against making too much out of the surface, whatever it is.

“A lot of people were surprised that we played indoors in San Diego and not outside on cement,” Gorman said of the 5-0 U.S. quarterfinal victory over France last month. “But as it turned out, we just whitewashed them.

“And that (Supreme Court surface) in San Diego played very fast,” he said. “I wouldn’t say it bounded super low, but it wasn’t super high either and Andre sure played very well there.”

The United States will be playing West Germany for the first time since 1987 when Becker defeated Mayotte in five sets in the deciding singles match for a 3-2 West German victory. The loss dropped the United States from the World Group to the Zone group, from which they emerged only this year.

Agassi wasted a fourth-set match point in losing to Mancini in last week’s Italian Open, then stood flat-footed and watched Mancini hit a forehand winner on the Argentine’s own match point in the fifth set. Agassi, who hasn’t won a Grand Prix tournament this year, said he’s going to get better because of a new attitude.

“I’m starting to appreciate where I am,” he said. “I’m not worried any more about what’s going to happen tomorrow. I’m learning to enjoy today. I have a new sincere and lasting happiness with myself.”

Even though the West Germans are the defending Davis Cup champions and despite the fact that they will play in Munich, Jimmy Connors thinks the United States will win.

“McEnroe and Agassi, Flach and Seguso--that’s tough against anybody,” Connors said. “It doesn’t matter who they’re playing.

“You would think that the doubles would be huge in that one and you have to give the nod to the United States. They’re tough. Flach and Seguso are undefeated and they seem to play their best tennis under pressure.”

Connors has been having his share of troubles on the courts recently. Seeded No. 9 for the the French Open, Connors said he enjoys playing tennis, but that will never be the only reason he plays.

“If you’re only in it to have a good time, then you’re in the wrong game,” Connors said.

“Once you’re out there, you’re in the war zone. I go to play my matches, I’m dressed in barbed wire. I’m not going to have a good time. I’m out there enjoying myself, but the end result is to win and to do whatever it takes to win.”

Chris Evert and Gabriela Sabatini have entered the $300,000 Virginia Slims of Los Angeles, joining Martina Navratilova and Zina Garrison in the 56-player field. Evert, the defending champion, defeated Sabatini in three sets in last year’s final.

Evert lost in the second round of the European Open last week, but before that had reached the finals of her last three tournaments: the Virginia Slims of Florida and Houston and the Lipton International Players Championships.

The tournament, which is in its 18th year in Los Angeles, will be held Aug. 7-13 at Manhattan Country Club.

Tennis Notes

Chris Evert will play an exhibition as part of the 11th Aspen Club Tennis Open, July 12-16, in Aspen, Colo. The tournament consists of championship, singles, doubles, mixed doubles and senior events, all sanctioned by the Colorado Tennis Assn. . . . Thomas Muster, the 21-year-old Austrian tennis star who tore knee ligaments in a freak car accident two months ago, hopes to return to the tour next fall. Muster said he has been training in Austria with a special chair that allows him to hit tennis balls while sitting down. He said he hopes to begin practicing again in July and to return to tournament action in October or November.