After Wimbledon, Fairbank Is Broadcast News

Rancho Bernardo’s Ros Fairbank intently watches the action unfolding on the TV screen before her. A young girl dressed in sparkling white is all smiles as 10 hula hoops make quick circles around her waist.

It is a half hour before Fairbank is scheduled to appear on “Sun-Up San Diego” on Channel 8. Fairbank, a tennis player, will appear after circus hula hooper Marie Elizabeth Perry, director Rob Reiner, planetary scientist Bruce Cordell and clairvoyant Petey Stevens. She will be followed by Jenna Machin, purveyor of educational toys.

“You did a good job with the hoops,” Fairbank tells host Kathi Diamant during a break.

Rush hour is long over, and the noon-time lunch bunch has yet to stir, but Fairbank was up with the birds to make a 6:45 a.m. spot on Steve Garvey’s morning sports show on XTRA.

“This was a very early day for me,” said Fairbank, 28, who made two radio appearances and one on TV to discuss her recent Wimbledon success--she reached the women’s singles quarterfinals, where she lost to Sweden’s Catarina Lindqvist, 7-5, 7-5--and to promote the Great American Bank Tennis tournament July 31-Aug. 6. Fairbank is scheduled to appear in the event at the San Diego Tennis & Racquet Club with the likes of Steffi Graf, Pam Shriver, Gretchen Magers and Lori McNeil.

The Garvey show goes well. Fairbank seems confident and relaxed as she answers questions that include inquiries into Wimbledon and Steffi Graf.

“I’m playing the best tennis of my life,” Fairbank said of her play in England. “Grass definitely is my surface. I feel I’m peaking, but I just came off a grass tournament, and I have to keep that in mind.”

Fairbank said she felt pressure to do well there because of her performance in 1988, when she also reached the quarterfinals.

“If I didn’t make it to the quarters again,” she said, “my ranking would have shot down. I had to win to keep my ranking. If I had lost in the first round, I’d be ranked in the 70s.”

Fairbank is No. 37 in the world. She said that while she hopes to improve--her best was No. 16 in 1983--the competition on the tour is such that a player must keep getting better just to maintain the same place.

“I would like to be ranked higher,” she said, “but to maintain your ranking means that you’re constantly improving.”

Garvey fields a question from a caller who wants to know why there aren’t more top athletes coming out of Fairbank’s native South Africa. Fairbank moved from Durban to San Diego in 1985, in part for better practice partners and access to more tournaments.

“In recent years, our efforts to compete have gotten harder,” Fairbank said. “South Africans are banned from some tournaments. It’s getting extremely difficult for us to showcase our talents.”

A caller from Palos Verdes says she had heard there was an off-court feud between Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova and wants to know how the women on the tour get along away from the game.

“Generally we get along, but there are no close friendships,” she said. “Chris and Martina didn’t hate each other. There’s a lot of tension in tennis, and some of that tension makes it off the court.”

Fairbank’s escort for the morning, Laurie Andres, nervously looks at her watch. Andres is a representative of the tournament’s publicists, RS Communications.

“They said she’d be done by 7:20,” Andres said. “Sun-Up is expecting us at 8.”

It is 7:35.

Garvey wishes Fairbank luck. She leaves Saturday morning for Newport, R.I., where she will play in the Virginia Slims of Newport. She thanks him. She says she enjoyed the interview.

“That was fun,” said Fairbank. “Sometimes you get on shows, and they don’t know much about tennis, and they’ll ask you stupid questions. He’s an ex-player so he knows the questions to ask.”

Fairbank arrives at the Sun-Up set in plenty of time and must wait 40 minutes before co-host Diamant chats with her on the air.

During the wait, Fairbank talks about her May 6 marriage to sports psychologist Bob Nideffer, her co-author on, “Playing Tennis to Win, the Mental Advantage.” Fairbank worked with Nideffer five years ago when she and former doubles partner Candy Reynolds were looking for ways to improve the communication in their game.

“It’s great,” she said of the marriage. “I’m really happy. It provides security. I like that we’re able to travel together, and I’m looking forward to traveling with him on his business.”

Once on camera, Diamant asks Fairbank about the difference in winning and losing.

“Physical talent is important,” she said, “but the key is to be mentally ready.”

Fairbank’s third-round match against Liz Smylie at Wimbledon this year--which she won 6-4, 2-6, 6-0--was delayed twice because of rain, the first time for two hours.

“You’re worried about having to come back out,” Fairbank said. “You wonder how you’ll be playing. You wonder how you’ll be feeling. In the back of your mind you’re constantly thinking about all these things.”

Diamant congratulates her on her tennis and her happiness. Finally, Fairbank is off to the Hudson & Bauer show on KFMB-FM. Fairbank’s last guest appearance of the day is also her shortest.

How would she play Graf if they were to meet in the final of the $200,000 Great American Bank Tennis Classic, she is asked?

“Steffi’s huge weapon is her forehand,” Fairbank said. “Mine is too. I would go into the match not fearing it. Instead I would try to put some pressure on her, trying to move her around.

“Most women who play her tend to think they have to play her backhand. I would play her forehand. It opens the backhand side, and you can get to the net.”

Fairbanks walks out of the studio and out into the mild mid-morning sunshine. Her media morning went just fine, but now it’s off to the Rancho Bernardo Inn for a two-hour practice session, and more natural surroundings. She looks anxious to make that appearance, too.