TENNIS : It’s Not Always Players Who Are at Fault

Two incidents at the French Open last week proved once again that tennis players usually don’t cause problems, rather it’s the people around them who are to blame.

First, there was Jennifer Capriati losing to Conchita Martinez. The result wasn’t that surprising given Martinez’s prowess on clay, but there seemed to be a growing conception that Capriati cannot be allowed to lose.

Capriati is a small corporation, not just a teen-ager playing in her second French Open, and her defeat was played out before an entire contingent of agents, coaches, business interests and family.

Taking his daughter’s defeat particularly hard was Stefano Capriati, whose angry demeanor clearly indicated his displeasure with the defeat. Jennifer surely must have noticed.

The Capriatis decided to go on to England and get ready for Wimbledon instead of sending Jennifer home for a week, which means that after Wimbledon, Capriati will have spent nearly three months playing tennis in Europe.

This may be fine for a budding tennis corporation, but not so great for a 15-year-old girl who could use a little time with her friends.

The second incident involved a fan named Jim Levee, a nephew of Walter Annenberg and perhaps the ultimate tennis groupie. Levee was struck in the head by an angry Peter Graf after an impromptu exchange in the players’ box during Steffi Graf’s semifinal loss to Arantxa Sanchez Vicario.

Levee was once part of the Graf entourage and sent her a Porsche for no other reason than to be admitted into her inner circle. Levee also showered other gifts on Graf, which were apparently returned, so he turned his attention elsewhere, notably to Monica Seles and Mary Joe Fernandez.

Levee, who lives in New York and Florida, is well known in women’s tennis circles and can be seen at virtually every large event in the world. Last year at the Virginia Slims of Los Angeles, Levee cleared the path of spectators for Seles as she left a practice court.

Levee watched each of Seles’ matches, sitting next to Karolj or Esther Seles, but faced a tough choice when Seles played Fernandez before coming up with a solution. Levee sat with the Seles family and sent his fiancee to sit with the Fernandez family.

With such background, it was not surprising that two star-crossed personalities such as Jim Levee, who bought his way into prominence, and Peter Graf, who fathered into it, would eventually collide.

They said it: The verbiage from any Grand Slam tournament is voluminous and some of it is even fairly interesting stuff, often because it is so, well, nonsensical.

The French Open is no exception. Following are some of the tournament’s greatest hits from the interview room.

Jimmy Connors, asked why the chair umpire came down from his chair to check a ball mark when he asked, but not when Ronald Agenor asked: “Because of my age.”

Goran Ivanisevic, asked his favorite playing surface just after losing his second-round match in stunningly lackadaisical straight sets: “Clay.”

Stefan Edberg, asked about his daily exercise program: “You have to look after your body, it is the only one you get. You can’t go and pick one out of the wardrobe.”

Andres Gomez, who issued a statement that he was pulling out because of an injury, which no one knew he had, although many were acutely aware of his string of seven first-match losses in 10 events: “It is with great sadness that I announce that, due to a leg injury that has failed to fully heal, I have no choice to withdraw.”

Patrick McEnroe, asked what bothers him the most: “The journalists.”

Jennifer Capriati, asked if other people’s expectations bother her: “No, I’m the one who caused them, I guess.”

Wimbledon update: The entry lists for men’s and women’s singles revealed that Sergi Bruguera is the only player among the top 20 men who won’t be playing. Bruguera injured his back last week and defaulted his second-round match.

Martinez is the only player among the top 16 women not entering Wimbledon, which is not surprising. She has never entered Wimbledon.

Best interview: Sanchez Vicario gave a three-sentence interview after winning her quarterfinal match over Fernandez. Here are two of the sentences.

Question: Are you ready to play Steffi?

Answer: I know what I have to do and I will do it?

Q: What do you have to do?

A: You will see.

Davis Cup: Bruguera’s bad back may be a convenient excuse to keep him from playing for Spain in next weekend’s Davis Cup matches since he is not regarded as much of a threat on grass courts such as those at Newport, R.I.

If Bruguera does not play, then it is possible that Spain’s singles players will be brothers Emilio Sanchez and Javier Sanchez Vicario.

The U.S. team is set with John McEnroe and Brad Gilbert playing singles, and Rick Leach and Jim Pugh playing doubles. Leach and Pugh, who lost in the third round of the French Open last year and in the first round in 1989, made the final against John Fitzgerald and Anders Jarryd this time.

Advancing so far in the French Open has had a secondary effect on Leach and Pugh. “It keeps our mind off the (Spain) match,” Leach said.

Said Pugh: “We were canceling (airplane) reservations every day.”