TENNIS / WOMEN’S TOURNAMENT AT INDIAN WELLS : Magers Gets an Old-Fashioned Victory Over Gavaldon, 6-2, 6-4

The future of women’s tennis wore pink and white, but she won’t make that mistake again.

For up-and-coming, 16-year-old Angelica Gavaldon, a pro for less than two weeks, it was like a totally yucky match, which was bad news for the pink-and-white skirt and blouse she wore Wednesday while losing to Gretchen Magers.

When Gavaldon loses, her clothes lose, too. She treats that skirt and shirt like dirt.

“I just never look at them or touch them again,” Gavaldon said, discussing her 6-2, 6-4 second-round defeat by Magers in the Virginia Slims of Indian Wells.

“I wear an outfit and I lose, forget it,” she said.

It would be very hard to forget Gavaldon, who is making a fairly big impression at a fairly young age.

And it’s probably happening for all the right reasons. Part of it is her tennis and part of it is her image.

Gavaldon braids her long, black hair and also wears makeup when she plays. Like many teens, she enjoys earrings, but Gavaldon doesn’t wear earrings, she wears earrings .

In fact, she plays her matches wearing huge silver loops that look almost big enough for a ball to pass through.

Ted Tinling, women’s tennis historian and couturier, said Gavaldon fits a “glamour girl” image that is not at all displeasing.

“She’s half Madonna, half Lolita,” Tinling said. “All the things people relate to. Of course, the total package is good for the game. She’s in today’s image. She projects the 1990s. Kids’ stuff.”

But what about her tennis?

“I think her tennis is good enough to get by,” Tinling said.

It was good enough for Gavaldon to reach the quarterfinals of the Australian Open, which included victories over Hana Mandlikova and Gigi Fernandez as well as improving her ranking from No. 197 to No. 97.

She also turned her back on $22,320 in prize money in Australia because she was not a professional. Gavaldon changed that last week when she played in the Virginia Slims of Oklahoma as a professional and reached the semifinals.

Along the way, Gavaldon left an impression of being fearless. At 5 feet 2, she stood inside the baseline to return the serve of 6-2 Brenda Schultz, who hits perhaps the hardest serve on the women’s tour.

Gavaldon used the same strategy against Magers, another hard-hitting serve-and-volley specialist who kept the ball away from Gavaldon’s backhand and broke her rhythm by refusing to rally.

Her silver-and-gold Rolex glinting, Gavaldon said she somehow felt wound down.

“It’s sad, especially when you don’t play that well, but you can’t always win and you can’t always play 100%,” she said.

Gavaldon’s coach, Lee Merry, who believes her tennis will improve a great deal, considers himself fortunate to have worked with her since she was 10.

The best coaching advice Merry said he could offer Gavaldon would be to enjoy herself.

“She just needs to work on her game and improve and not worry about who she’s playing or her ranking,” Merry said. “She is going to be top 10.”

Magers, ranked No. 26 and a quarterfinalist at Wimbledon last year, said Gavaldon possesses tenacity and confidence, which she described as a nice combination.

“At 16, she’s not afraid of much,” Magers said.

While Gavaldon’s prowess grows, so does a curious superstitious bent. She has a different superstition at each tournament, but never anything so simple as avoiding black cats or ladders.

Gavaldon ate a chocolate chip cookie each day at the Australian Open. Last week in Oklahoma City, she slept only on the right side of the bed. Her superstitious practice this week was to pace the hall outside her hotel room each night before retiring.

Sensitive to being portrayed as a mall-haunting Valley girl, Gavaldon, of Coronado, has worked to eliminate teen-age slang from her vocabulary.

“With all the interviews she’s had, it’s something she is really conscious of, and is trying to improve the way she comes across,” said Janine Bell, public relations director of the women’s tour sponsor.

Magers said she saw no need to offer any advice to Gavaldon, but did anyway.

“The sky’s the limit when you’re 16, so don’t get discouraged,” she said. “There’ll always be another tournament.”