TENNIS / CHAMPIONS CUP : Connors Chops Caratti, Looks Forward to Stich

So, Jimmy Connors, are you ready to play Wimbledon champion Michael Stich?

“Fire him up,” said Connors. “Every time I look at someone like that, I see a mass of bonus points.”

In his first-round match Tuesday at the Newsweek Champions Cup, Connors hit a mass of his two-handed backhands past Cristiano Caratti into the corner of the court. They added up to a 6-4, 6-4 victory, worth a second-round matchup today against Stich.

It will be a rematch of their duel three weeks ago at Memphis, where Connors not only managed to pull off a three-set upset, but also angered the high-strung Stich. Connors manipulated the crowd, Stich said afterward.

“Oh, I figured that was more or less childishness on his part,” Connors said. “After that, he let a few things bother him. I don’t let things on his side bother me, so don’t let things on my side bother you.”

Six months short of his 40th birthday, Connors wasn’t bothered by very much in his match with Caratti, a 21-year-old Italian who served as sort of a prop for Connors in his long-running tennis act.

There was Connors bowing to a linesman, playfully hitting a ball at another linesman, conducting discussions with fans in the box seats and using enough towels to stock a bathhouse.

In fact, the only thing that riled Connors had nothing to do with his match but what he says has been done to his game. Power tennis--big rackets swung by big shots--is ruining the sport, Connors said.

“It’s gotten to the point where there is only one way to play the game now,” he said. “There is no Nastase, there is no McEnroe (who) finesse the ball, caress the ball, guide the ball, bunt the ball.

“If you can hit the ball hard and it goes in, you might win. If you hit the ball hard and it hits the fence, you come back and play another one of your 35 tournaments.

“I’ve never seen anybody hit the ball as hard as a lot of these guys do now. Boom, boom, boom--time after time. My racket is not big enough. I should have a basket out there. The bigger the rackets, the harder we can hit the ball, the more boring it’s going to get.”

Michael Chang, not exactly known for knocking the fuzz off the ball, was hardly boring in his first-round victory over Martin Jaite. Chang escaped, 6-0, 6-7 (8-6), 7-6 (7-3), after blowing a 5-2 lead in the second-set tiebreaker and wasting three match points.

Jaite led, 5-1, in the third set and twice served for the match, but failed. Even so, Jaite was not impressed by Chang’s new, aggressive style. “It is very stupid to play like I did,” Jaite said. “I think he is more dangerous when he plays at the baseline.”

Said Chang: “It was kind of crazy.”

It also has been sort of crazy for Andre Agassi, down from No. 4 to No. 12 in the last year. Agassi won only his third tournament match of the year, 6-3, 6-7 (7-5), 6-3, over Jaime Yzaga.

Tennis Notes

Jim Courier, who is sitting out the U.S. Davis Cup match with Czechoslovakia later this month, as he did in the first round against Argentina, is expected to play the rest of the way should the United States advance. But Aaron Krickstein thinks Courier, as the No. 1-ranked player, shouldn’t be allowed to come in late. “I think he should commit at the beginning of the year or you don’t play at all,” Krickstein said. “I don’t think you should pop up in the semifinals or finals if you haven’t played the first two rounds. Either you want to play or you don’t want to play.” U.S. Captain Tom Gorman said that Courier definitely will play if the United States defeats the Czechs in Ft. Myers, Fla., March 27-29. “What Jim told me was he based his decision not to play strictly on scheduling,” Gorman said. “The Davis Cup week is really his only so-called rest week in there.”

The Goran Ivanisevic Forum? A week after the 20-year-old served 32 aces in one match, the ATP Tour has scheduled a forum later this month in Key Biscayne to discuss how tennis is evolving into a power format. “It’s not good for tennis,” Rod Laver said of the emphasis on power. He suggests slowing the courts and take some pressure out of the balls.