TENNIS / THOMAS BONK : After Knee Injury, He Mustered Up the Courage for Comeback

Just about a year ago, shortly before midnight on a darkened street in Miami, Austrian Thomas Muster found himself flat on his back on the asphalt, pinned beneath a car.

A man driving without a license and later charged with driver under the influence, had rammed Muster’s rental car head-on as Muster was reaching into the trunk for his rackets. Muster was knocked to the street and his left knee was struck by the bumper and twisted beneath him.

His injury turned out to be severe. He had torn the anterior cruciate ligament, the main stabilizing ligament so vital to a tennis player such as Muster, who relied on charging and quickness and rapid movements to set up and hit his ground strokes.

But at least Muster was alive. He defaulted the final of the International Players Championship to Ivan Lendl the next day, flew home to Vienna and had surgery on his left knee.

Specialists who had predicted Muster would be out for at least a year were proved half wrong when the hard-hitting, 22-year-old right-hander came back Sept. 18. He finally played Lendl, but in an exhibition in Vienna.

Muster, whose ranking dropped from 10 to 37 while he was recuperating, is moving up the rankings with a rehabilitated knee and a hardened resolve to challenge for the French Open title. He meets Andrei Chesnokov today in the final at Monte Carlo.

“I’m back to normal,” Muster said.

One of the hardest sluggers in tennis and particularly effective on clay, Muster (pronounced MOOSE-ter) set his mind on returning to top-level tennis as quickly as possible and has surprised many by doing just that.

“I don’t think anybody expected me to come back so fast,” Muster said. “But I also think it took a long time, too. We worked very, very hard.”

A few weeks after the knee surgery, while Muster’s leg still was in a hard cast, Ronnie Lietgeb, Muster’s close friend and coach, instructed a Vienna furniture company to build a special chair to be taken on the court so Muster could hit tennis balls while sitting.

Lietgeb’s encouragement helped Muster through some times when progress was slow in coming.

“I always had motivation when you don’t believe in it anymore,” Muster said. “That’s when you need somebody to help you on the mental part.

“You are giving up. You are working like an idiot and nothing happens.”

Back on the court again, something happened. Muster returned to the tour at Barcelona last fall and reached the quarterfinals. His match record was 6-6 the rest of the year, but Muster had made his point--his comeback was under way.

Muster won at Adelaide, Australia, in the first tournament of the year and won again at Casablanca in March. His ranking is No. 30 and will improve when he plays more tournaments. The ATP computer allows players to count their best 14 tournaments in a 12-month period. Muster played his 15th at Monte Carlo and may now be able to throw out some of his four first-round losses as he picks up more tournaments.

As the clay court season moves toward its climax in Paris, Muster will be gauging the success of his comeback at Roland Garros Stadium.

“The French is my biggest goal of the season,” Muster said. “I should be able to play well, at least get to the semifinals.

“I have a pretty good chance to improve my ranking if I just play tennis--play tennis like I used to. That’s the only way to survive, to get to the top 10.

“At least I feel comfortable on clay. It’s a lot of tactics. I grew up on that surface and I’m feeling good on it because I do things naturally that I don’t have to think about. It’s just there.”

Muster’s comeback from serious injury might not be complete yet, but after what he has been through he is not afraid of much. Neither does he fear any other player, including the 29 ranked ahead of him on the computer.

“Everybody has to be afraid of me,” he said.

More Muster: The U.S. plays Austria in the Davis Cup semifinals Sept. 17 in Vienna and Muster said the Americans should be favored.

“I think they are the favorites and we know they are not the underdogs,” Muster said. “Even with our home advantage, I would say our chances are no better than 50-50.”

Muster said he expects U.S. captain Tom Gorman to choose from Jay Berger, Michael Chang and Aaron Krickstein to play singles and that Rick Leach and Jim Pugh will be the doubles team.

“I suppose there is a chance we will see Andre Agassi, but you never know if he is getting along with Gorman,” Muster said.

Goodby Nick: Jim Courier has split from longtime coach Nick Bollettieri and is no longer affiliated with Bollettieri’s tennis academy in Bradenton, Fla. Courier took Sergio Cruz along with him as coach-trainer.

Courier’s relationship with Bollettieri became strained a year ago when the sun-tanned coach with the ever-present dark glasses sat with Agassi’s party during a Courier-Agassi match in the Tournament of Champions at Forest Hills, N.Y. Both Courier and Agassi were affiliated with Bollettieri’s camp at the time. Courier wondered then whether his coach was showing favoritism toward Agassi, who responded by saying that Courier had an inferiority complex. When Courier and Agassi played again, two weeks later at the French Open, Courier won easily.

For now, Courier said he gets along fine with Agassi and is, well, eagerly awaiting a chance to play him again in Paris.

There is also increasing speculation that Monica Seles is going to bolt Bollettieri in the near future, which would leave him with only one of his three stars remaining in camp.

Strings strung: If she is well enough to play, Tracy Austin will join the Los Angeles Strings for the Domino’s Pizza TeamTennis season that begins July 11 in the Forum. Jeff Austin, Tracy’s brother and agent, said Austin is just beginning to hit again after breaking her leg in a car accident in August.

“We’re very hopeful we will have Tracy,” said John Lloyd, who is beginning his fourth season as Strings’ player-coach.

The other Strings are Nick Brown of England, who will play men’s singles, and Robin White, who will play women’s singles. Brown, a three-year veteran of team tennis in England, played on the same team with Lloyd last year in London and is attempting to make a comeback on the IBM/ATP Tour.

The 27-year-old Austin would play only doubles with the Strings.

The Newport Beach Dukes, newcomers to TeamTennis, will field a team of Marty Davis, Roger Smith, Amy Frazier and Sophie Amiach and will be coached by UC Irvine’s Greg Patton.

Why are they the Dukes? The Dukes play at the John Wayne Tennis Club.

Tennis Notes

At 14, Jennifer Capriati continues to grow in stature. Television ratings of her Family Circle final against Martina Navratilova were up 35% over last year’s final. How impressed was Tim Hovland when he watched Capriati play Navratilova on television? Hovland, one of the top players on the pro volleyball tour, went right out and bought his 10-month-old daughter, Tara, a tennis racket.

Chris Evert will take part in the seventh Panasonic WINGS celebrity tennis tournament May 5 at Claremont Club in Claremont. The event benefits Women in Need Growing Strong, a shelter program for battered women and children sponsored by the San Gabriel Valley YWCA. Among others scheduled to take part are Robert Wagner, Linda Gray, Jimmy Connors, Evonne Goolagong, Tracy Austin, Bobby Riggs, Ashok Amritraj, Dick Van Patten and sons James, Nels and Vince, Pat Boone, Jack Carter, Bert Convy, Gil Gerard, Deborah Raffin, Tim Reid, James Sikking, Robert Stack and Patrick Wayne. Information: (818) 332-0088. . . . Pete Sampras has left IMG over a commission dispute and moved to ProServ.

Willie Randolph of the Dodgers has been selected for induction into the Nutrasweet Juvenile Diabetes Foundation Hall of Fame. Candidates are current and former athletes who have excelled in sports despite diabetes or members of the community active in seeking a cure for diabetes. Randolph has a diabetic daughter. The fifth Nutrasweet celebrity golf and tennis tournament will be held May 14 at Riviera Country Club. The event hopes to raise more than $100,000 for diabetes research in the Los Angeles area.