Wimbledon Grass Looks Green for Lendl

Ivan Lendl can sit back and smell the grass, but he’d better not get too comfortable. While his No. 1 ranking is safe for now, the question of who is the best tennis player in the world is more muddled than ever.

With Stefan Edberg and Boris Becker blown out of the French Open in the first round, and Lendl safely tucked away in a suburban London house waiting for Wimbledon to start, the top spot won’t be changing hands on the clay courts of Paris.

The top of the Association of Tennis Professionals’ standings remains tight, as close as it’s been since August 1988. Lendl, however, is unfazed. He’s still No. 1, and a first Wimbledon title remains his immediate goal.

“It’s out of my control, so I don’t worry about it,” he said. “I’m extremely happy with the way my life is going. I like to live in the present and make the future the way I want it.”

Some other players have the same idea. Lendl looks vulnerable and a wide-open championship in Paris could be their road to the top.

“There are a lot of good young guys, and then there are the guys that have played well on clay this year,” said Jimmy Connors, a former No. 1 who is here as a commentator for NBC. “It’s due for somebody to step in and make a name for themselves, and it’s the time to do it here.”

This is the toughest time of the year for tennis players. They are just finishing a long season on European clay courts and getting ready for the month-long switch to British grass, capped by the Wimbledon championships in late June.

Going from the slowest surface to the fastest is a switch as much psychological as physical. It has so psyched out some top players that they have chosen to skip the French in increasing numbers and get on grass courts early.

John McEnroe did it last year. This year, Martina Navratilova and Lendl are the top absentees.

That gave players such as Edberg and Becker a chance to move up. The Grand Slams provide more ranking points than any other tournaments, and both the Swede and the West German--Nos. 2 and 3 on the list--could have overtaken Lendl with a good performance here.

Edberg entered the tournament trailing Lendl by 71 points and needed to reach the quarterfinals to move into the top spot. Becker was another 65 points behind and could have taken No. 1 with a semifinal berth, provided Edberg went out early.

All of the top three will lose points once last year’s French Open results are wiped off the computer rankings at the end of the tournament. Edberg, last year’s runner-up, will lose the most, at least 335 points. Becker, a semifinalist, will drop at least 212. The absent Lendl, who reached the fourth round a year ago, loses just 72.

That may make Lendl’s ranking secure but it doesn’t do much to clear up who really is No. 1. Lendl won the Australian Open when Edberg defaulted in the final with a bad back. Paris has produced its usual upsets, with clay-court specialists such as Andres Gomez, Thomas Muster and Andre Agassi staking claims as the best on that surface if not the best in the world.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if Bjorn Borg and Chris Evert came out of retirement to play,” Connors said.

The tactics on clay are so different, it’s almost a different game.

“I think if the surface were different, if it was on hard court or grass, the situation would be completely different,” defending champion Michael Chang said.

“On clay, it’s just so much of a mind game and a physical game. Everything is so much slower. It gives everybody more time to hit the ball. You need 3-5 shots to win a point. Against serve-and-volleyers, you get an extra shot at a passing shot.”

Edberg and Becker are among the best serve-and-volley players in the world, having won Wimbledon four of the last five years. But their shocking defeats in Paris could follow them to southwest London.

“Stefan is a very low-key kind of guy, but this has to hurt him,” said Tony Pickard, Edberg’s coach. “There is nothing wrong with his serve, nothing wrong with his forehand, nothing wrong with his backhand, nothing wrong with any part of his game. He’s just a bit negative and needs to believe in what he’s doing.”

To help get his confidence back, Edberg entered a small grass-court tournament next week in Beckenham, England, where Lendl also is playing. The tournament isn’t part of any tour and offers a small purse, but grass is grass.

Becker said he needs time to regroup before defending his Wimbledon title.

“I have got to sort myself out and maybe have a little rest before getting back to playing on grass,” he said. “I don’t intend to rush over to England just because of what’s happened here, but there’s no way I’ll let it get me down. I’ll be OK.”

In Wimbledon, meanwhile, Lendl works with coach Tony Roche on his footwork and enjoys family life with his wife, Samantha, and their new-born daughter.

Still No. 1 and hungry for that first grass-court Slam, he has more to his life than tennis now.

“Like all the other players, I feel that nobody can beat me if I play my best,” Lendl said in an interview with the Times of London. “But once I’m off the court, I don’t worry about it too much.”