Tennis Prodigies, Media Pressure: a Mismatch?

No sport has as many good TV commentators these days as tennis. Affirmation came in coverage of the recent U.S. Open in New York by CBS and cable’s USA Network.

As usual, dependable Tony Trabert headed the telecasts on CBS, which again also boasted the presence of astute Mary Carillo, who usually teams with that grand duo of Cliff Drysdale and Fred Stolle on ESPN. Also, bravo to CBS for attacking the gender barrier by again using Carillo for men’s matches--as ESPN does--as well as women’s.

However, it was USA’s live coverage that all but stole the show. Only one major criticism: Too many times, replays covered live action.

Whereas CBS was sometimes stiff, too glossy and guilty of overproduction--those mundane crowd interviews simply have to go, for example--USA’s coverage was looser and great, boisterous fun. In part, credit the personnel.

There’s a time for silence and a time for talk. When matches last as long as four hours, though, there’s plenty of room for both.

In that regard, USA made two key moves for the Open.

One was to bring back that New Yorker of infinite well-placed verbal volleys, Vitas Gerulaitis, and team him with solid Barry MacKay and Ted Robinson on men’s coverage. The flamboyant Gerulaitis was literally the life of the tennis party.

A former top player who reached the Open finals himself in 1979, Gerulaitis is even better behind the mike, his bracing street wit and earthy candor a perfect counterpoint to MacKay’s reserved, professorial style. USA should give this man a lifetime contract.

The other crucial USA move was to hire Billie Jean King, who not only has been the soul of women’s tennis for 25 years, but also, as it turns out, is a natural on TV. King’s analysis of women’s matches (with help from Tracy Austin) was almost coach-like in its sage perceptiveness. No pretensions from her, just a great sense of humor and some very shrewd observations and constructive critiques.

It was King who, sounding almost motherly, noted during 14-year-old Jennifer Capriati’s match with a 15-year-old: “These are children.” Children playing “women’s” tennis. Of course, King was right.

That we even should have to be reminded, however, shows how the youth surge in professional sports, especially tennis, has fostered a sometimes unhealthy environment in which teen-agers entering high-stakes competition at an early age come to be regarded as adults and judged as adults.

The point is indirectly made in “Kids & Sports: Taking the Risk,” an NBC documentary airing at 10 tonight on Channels 4, 36 and 39. Deborah Norville is the anchor.

Although not deep-probing, the hour does examine the physiological--and, to a lesser extent, psychological--perils facing youngsters in sports. The subject here encompasses the ordinary kids who play organized sports and the truly gifted young athletes who seem assured of superstardom if they remain healthy.

Among the latter are high school basketball flash Chris Webber, who is as nimble as a point guard despite being almost 6-10, and diver Jenny Kiem of Houston, who is undergoing “hours and hours of workouts, six days a week” in Florida in preparation for the 1992 Summer Olympics.

She is 12.

You think of Kiem and some of the youngsters who were displayed on TV in the Open, knowing that the pressure they put on themselves is enormous. Even greater, perhaps, is the pressure put on them by the media.

Heaven help the young athlete who carries the burden of being a phenom. It’s an indelible stamp, meaning the athlete must live up not only to the public’s expectations, but worse, also to the media’s. An athlete who does not meet standards set for him by the media--and meet them quickly--is labeled a failure by the media, regardless of the facts.

Pete Sampras won the Open men’s title Sunday, culminating a year in which his tennis fortunes have shot upward like a missile. If he doesn’t win another major championship in the next couple of years, however, he’ll be known as a disappointment.

He’s 19.

Yesterday’s hero or heroine may become today’s disappointment.

Take Steffi Graf. Even though she lost Saturday in the finals of the Open, Graf remains the world’s No. 1 female tennis player, someone who is rarely beaten. She has won “only” one major or Grand Slam title this year, however, and that has raised some eyebrows. Some in the media have begun to question her desire. They have decided that one Grand Slam a year for Graf (who won all four the previous year) is not enough. They wonder whether, after so much success, Graf can remain motivated.

She is 21.

Gabriela Sabatini, who upset Graf in the Open, had won 14 professional tournaments even before taking the Open title. A winner of perhaps 80% of her matches, she has been ranked as high as No. 3 and is currently ranked No. 5. That is not enough to mollify her media critics, some of whom say she has a loser’s image. After all, they point out, it has taken this underachieving slow poke until now to win her first Grand Slam tournament, the Open.

She is 20.

Monica Seles is the No. 3 female player, a 16-year-old. How long will she be given to reach No. 1? Until she is 18?

And Capriati, who has had striking success since turning pro this year, is on the verge of being ranked in the top 10. Already rich in commercial endorsements and touted as a soon-to-be No. 1, she is repeatedly lauded, profiled and, although just a giggly 14, sought for interviews as if she had great wisdom to impart merely because she can whack a tennis ball.

The experts say Capriati is enormously gifted. Thus, we have decided that she will become the best female tennis player in the world. If she doesn’t, we will be very mad at her.