Tennis Promoters Cater to Players’ Fancies

Rock ‘n’ roll tennis, it appears, maybe didn’t originate with Andre Agassi.

The year was 1989. The Women’s Tennis Assn. tour was in San Diego.

So was Rod Stewart.

The request was placed. Calls were made. And soon, Steffi Graf and Pam Shriver, tickets in hand, were on their way to the show.

Maggie May, anyone? There is more to a tennis tournament than tennis.

Raquel Giscafre and Jane Stratton, who are promoting the Mazda Tennis Classic at La Costa that begins today, can tell you all about it. They have been in charge of the San Diego stop on the tour each year since 1984 and, this year, they are preparing for, among others, Monica Seles, the No. 1-ranked player in the world, as well as Jennifer Capriati, Zina Garrison and Manuela Maleeva Fragniere.

And dogs.

Seles is bringing Astro, her Yorkshire terrier. Stratton thinks Gigi Fernandez is also bringing her dog. Heck, Giscafre brings her dog, too.

“And who knows what other dogs we’ll have,” Giscafre said.

Of course, Stratton and Giscafre are no novices at handling dogs.

“Last year, we built a dog pen behind a trailer,” Stratton said. “Gigi Fernandez brought her dog, Martina (Navratilova) brought hers and Raquel has a dog.

“Who knows, we might pull out the dog pen again.”

Besides, the dogs seem to be nearly as well-known as the players.

“What about Seles’ dog?” Giscafre is asked.

“Astro?” she answers, without a moment’s hesitation.

If it seems like organized chaos, Giscafre and Stratton probably would agree. There are players from at least 12 countries scheduled to play this week. Four of the players are among the top 10 in the world (Seles, No. 8 Conchita Martinez, No. 9 Garrison and No. 10 Fragniere).

As far as lining up this year’s field, Stratton and Giscafre didn’t send out invitations. You can bet Seles didn’t need to return an RSVP.

No, the San Diego stop on the tour is a “primary” stop--has been since 1989--which means the WTA provides San Diego with a minimum of one player ranked in the top four, two in the top eight and three in the top 10.

The players get to pick where they want to go, unless there are too many players for one city and not enough for another. Then, the WTA steps in.

Seles, for example, signed to play San Diego this year. Graf, who has won the tournament in each of the past two summers, didn’t.

Graf’s problem was that she was scheduled to play in the Federation Cup this week and going directly from that to San Diego would have been too much. Instead, Graf chose to play in the Canadian Open and in the Virginia Slims of Washington, D.C.

Maybe she heard Stewart would be playing in either Canada or D.C. . . . or both.

There have been other concert requests Giscafre and Stratton have fulfilled. Last year, several of the players attended a Gipsy Kings show.

As promoters, Giscafre and Stratton try to make the players feel as comfortable as possible. They let the players know what concerts are in town, arrange for players to have dinner at local restaurants and see to transportation needs.

When Graf requested a special brand of water with a twist of lemon to be supplied at courtside last year, it was done. New tennis balls? No problem.

And there are always tickets available to the zoo, Wild Animal Park, Sea World and museums.

More so, in one case at least, than for the tournament.

“Last year (at the San Diego Tennis and Racquet Club), we had sold out the final several days in advance,” Stratton said. “The ticket staff was saying, ‘Sorry, sold out.’ On Sunday (finals day), a man came to the ticket window and was told we were sold out.

“He said, ‘I just spoke to you an hour ago, and you said there wasn’t a problem, come on down.’ We looked at each other like, ‘Who would say that?’ He was getting madder and madder.

“It turns out, he thought he was at Sea World.”