TENNIS : Gavaldon Ready to Turn Pro, You Know

As the search continues for someone who can beat Steffi Graf, a teen-age contender may have been located on an island in Southern California.

She is 16-year-old Angelica Gavaldon, of Coronado, who is not yet a pro, but probably will be by the end of the month.

What’s the rush? There are several thousand reasons. When unheralded Gavaldon upset Hana Mandlikova and Gigi Fernandez in reaching the quarterfinals of the Australian Open, Gavaldon turned her back on $24,000 in prize money.

“I think I do want to turn pro, you know, because it’s like I lost around $24,000, you know,” Gavaldon said. “It’s like I’m there, you know, and sweating and everything.

“So, I was telling my mom, you know, I really don’t want to play college tennis and, if I turn pro, I can go to college later, you know. I think I’m sweating and everything, and I’m not keeping my money, you know.”

Yeah, now we know, you know. As might be expected, she is a, well, teen-ager. She collects earrings--50 pairs so far--talks like a Valley girl and loves going to movies.

Tutored by her coach of the past six years, Lee Merry of Canyon Hills Racket Club in Escondido, Gavaldon is likely to turn pro after playing in the Virginia Slims of Oklahoma, the week of Feb. 19.

She said she hopes her ranking--expected to improve from 192 to possibly the upper 90s because of her success in Australia--will give her a direct entry into the main draw of the Virginia Slims of Indian Wells, which is probably going to be Gavaldon’s debut as a pro.

Martina Navratilova is the top player in that $350,000 event, Feb. 26-March 4, at Hyatt Grand Champions. Mandlikova and Australian Open finalist Mary Joe Fernandez also are entered.

The Gavaldon bandwagon began rolling in Australia, where she won three matches in qualifying just to get into the main draw.

“Nobody knew who I was,” she said. “I was kind of nervous, but, all of a sudden, I was not nervous at all.”

She is superstitious, though.

“It’s a joke,” Gavaldon said. “If I lost, like, I have this blue skirt that I played in in Brisbane. I do not even look at or even touch it ever again. Forget that skirt.

“And then, like, just things I do, like, at the hotel I stayed there was a food court, and I had to eat there every night and have a cookie. And I had to have a cookie, because if I didn’t have a cookie I wasn’t going to do well the next day. I know it’s awful, but I swear, it’s such a joke.”

Gavaldon’s mother, Angelica, braided her daughter’s hair every morning, always in the bathroom of their hotel room. Mrs. Gavaldon said she went along with her daughter’s superstitions, although she tried to dissuade her.

“I can say, ‘You can’t believe in these things,’ but she doesn’t believe me,” Mrs. Gavaldon said. “She is a baby, I think.”

Angelica attended Our Lady of Peace Catholic School, but now takes high school correspondence courses. Her professional tennis schooling is coming right up.

‘Tina and Zina: Navratilova will introduce her new doubles partner at the Virginia Slims of Indian Wells: Zina Garrison. Navratilova and Pam Shriver parted in August.

End of SRO: At Wimbledon, they are bemoaning the end of a 68-year tradition. All standing room at Centre Court has been eliminated because of new fire regulations.

The reaction among the members of the ivy-covered All-England Club has been predictable.

“It’s very, very sad,” said spokeswoman Sue Youngman.

Wimbledon’s Centre Court was built in 1922 and has about 2,000 standing-room spaces included in its total capacity of 14,502. Permanent seats will be built in that area for this year’s Wimbledon tournament, starting June 25.

Top-heavy: Boris Becker is top-seeded in the $1-million Newsweek Champions Cup, March 5-11 at Hyatt Grand Champions, where 10 of the top 15 players in the world will compete.

Other highly ranked players expected are No. 4 Brad Gilbert, No. 6 Michael Chang, No. 7 Aaron Krickstein, No. 8 Andre Agassi, No. 10 Mats Wilander, No. 11 Jay Berger, No. 12 Alberto Mancini, No. 13 Martin Jaite and No. 14 Tim Mayotte.

Top-15 players who have not entered are No. 1 Ivan Lendl, No. 3 Stefan Edberg, No. 6 John McEnroe, No. 9 Yannick Noah and No. 15 Carl-Uwe Steeb.

Defending champion Miloslav Mecir, who defeated Noah in a five-set final, will be back.

Chang update: The French Open champion, who suffered a hip separation while practicing in December, will be examined Tuesday by orthopedist Robert Kerlan.

Depending on the results of a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) test, Chang may be given approval to return to the courts.

Kerlan warned, however, against being too optimistic.

“Hopefully, if it looks good enough, he can (resume practice),” Kerlan said. “But I would rather wait and not predict.”

Chang is scheduled to play in the Volvo Tennis Indoor in Memphis, Feb. 26-March 4.

“I think he’s making plans hopefully from what the results may show,” Kerlan said. “But he doesn’t know and I don’t know right now.”

Chang turns 18 on Feb. 22.

Doubles talk: Ken Flach and Robert Seguso raised a few eyebrows this week when they criticized the U.S. Davis Cup doubles team of Rick Leach and Jim Pugh, who replaced them for a first-round match against Mexico.

However, Seguso said he and Flach had traveled a difficult road with the Davis Cup, which should be taken into account.

“I mean, we’ve been playing for five years, which means we’ve been through a lot with Davis Cup,” Seguso said. “We’ve played through the hard times with the USTA and the U.S. team and, meanwhile, Ken and I are winning every match. And all the while, we’re answering questions like ‘What’s wrong with American tennis?’ and ‘What’s wrong with the junior program?’ ”