TENNIS / THOMAS BONK : Borg’s Personal Life Remains a Shambles

First there was a crushing defeat in his highly publicized comeback match in Monte Carlo, then the news got much worse for Bjorn Borg. One day after getting blown off the clay court by 52nd-ranked Jordi Arrese, Borg learned that his wife, 40-year-old Italian pop singer Loredana Berte, was hospitalized back home in Milan after apparently attempting suicide.

While Borg’s tennis life was always orderly and well-mannered, his personal life has been a shambles since his full-time exit from pro tennis in 1981. Borg divorced his Romanian wife, Mariana Simionescu, and fathered a son with Swedish model Janike Bjorling. But Borg and Bjorling did not part amicably, and a long child custody battle ensued.

At about the same time, Borg’s design and sportswear company went bankrupt. In February of 1989, Borg was hospitalized in Milan and had his stomach pumped. The Italian media referred to it as a suicide attempt. However, Borg blamed a case of food poisoning, claiming he ate some tainted frozen fish.

According to an Associated Press report, Berte’s hospitalization came only two days after she anxiously telephoned Italian reporters who were in Monte Carlo, upset about seeing a French magazine picture of Borg and a woman. Berte reportedly complained also that Borg was too devoted to his conditioning coach, Ron Thatcher, 79. An unusual figure to say the least, Thatcher is a martial arts expert who goes by the name Tai Honsai, or “the Professor.”

The Associated Press said that Milan police officer Letizia Cecotti quoted Berte as saying on her way to the hospital: “I am tired of this life, too many disappointments.”

Berte was released from the hospital Saturday, and Reuters quoted her doctor, Ezio Omboni, as saying she had made a complete recovery. “Her condition merits her release, which she herself had requested to escape a siege that has passed all limits of tolerance,” Omboni said, referring to the crowd of photographers and reporters at the hospital.

So far, there are no indications that Borg, who will be 35 on June 6, intends to change his comeback plans of entering the Italian Open, the French Open and Wimbledon as a wild card. While Borg seemed unperturbed by his lackluster showing in Monte Carlo, he left plenty of others to do the worrying for him.

“The last thing anyone would want would be for Bjorn to suffer a series of defeats by players who, at his peak, would have been lucky to take more than one or two token games from him,” said Philippe Chatrier, president of the International Tennis Federation. “That would not only be sad for him but would also taint too many memories of one of the game’s great champions.”

More succinct was Richard Evans, director of communications in Europe for the Assn. of Tennis Professionals: “We hope he doesn’t make a fool of himself.”

Really? From Steffi Graf, who has lost five consecutive matches to onetime whipping girl Gabriela Sabatini: “At the moment, she has the mental edge.”

Playing Marble: In “Courting Danger,” a new book about legendary tennis star Alice Marble, written with Dale Leatherman, the late Marble described her visits to Recreation Park in San Francisco at 13 to watch the Pacific Coast League’s Seals play baseball.

Members of the Seals included Lefty Gomez, Lefty O’Doul and Frankie Crosetti, and 13-year-old Alice was quickly adopted by the players used to seeing her around. Even then, Marble attracted the attention of the press.

” . . . I was the official mascot of the Seals with the privilege of warming up with the team every time they played,” Marble wrote. “The reporter from the San Francisco Examiner came to our house; in the next morning’s paper was a picture of me winding up to pitch and a write-up calling me ‘the Little Queen of Swat,’ saying I ‘performed like a veteran’ and was ‘truly remarkable for a girl of 13.’

“I carried the clipping in my pocket until it was barely legible. It was my first taste of fame.”

One of the first great American female tennis stars, Marble soon made headlines worldwide and influenced generations, Martina Navratilova among them, with her surprisingly modern serve-and-volley style.

Marble won the U.S. National singles title four times and doubles title four times, and won the Wimbledon singles championship in 1938, as well as the doubles title twice and the mixed doubles title three times.

Marble, who lived at Palm Desert Country Club, died Dec. 13 at 77. A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. today at the recreation center of Palm Desert Country Club, where a lounge will be renamed in her honor.

Sampras update: Pete Sampras, the oft-injured U.S. Open champion, sprained his right ankle in a one-set exhibition match against Andre Agassi in Minneapolis on April 20, but the 19-year-old from Rancho Palos Verdes doesn’t expect to miss his tournament commitment in Hamburg, Germany, on May 6.

Injuries forced Sampras out of two earlier tournaments. He withdrew from the Newsweek Champions Cup in March after he was hurt playing an exhibition against Agassi in San Diego. But before Sampras returns to tournament play in Hamburg, he has another exhibition scheduled Wednesday in Atlanta.

Tennis Notes

Joe Bixler was honored by The Valley Hunt Club for 35 years of service to tennis in conducting the Southern California Intercollegiate Tennis Championships. Bixler, who was instrumental in developing junior players, was also associated with the Pacific Southwest and Ojai, and served as a tennis official during the 1984 Olympic Games. He was president of the Southern California Tennis Assn. for 12 years. . . . The third annual “Youth vs. Experience” tennis team match play will be held on May 27, starting at 10 a.m., at the Los Angeles Tennis Club. Players as young as 10 and as old as 80 or more will compete against each other.

Monica Seles, Steffi Graf, Zina Garrison and Pam Shriver have entered the $225,000 Mazda tennis tournament July 29-Aug. 4 at La Costa. . . . Jeri Dodson, Jan Dann, Suzi Eiger, Wendy Koblick, Karen Lee and Janine Walker of Braemar Country Club are competing in the Amateur Women’s Associate Club Challenge Cup in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., this weekend.

It looks as if the proposed Grand Slam Cup for women players will not get off the ground after a vote taken last week by the board of the Women’s Tennis Assn. The board members said they would take part in the International Tennis Federation’s Cup only if the women receive the same prize money as the men at all Grand Slam events. The French Open and Wimbledon do not offer equal prize money to men and women and are not expected to change their positions any time soon.