TENNIS / THOMAS BONK : Strange Year Getting Stranger

The tennis season is just hitting its stride but it’s already been sort of a strange year, even by tennis standards.

Who could have predicted what’s happened so far in 1992? Jim Courier is No. 1, Jimmy Connors turns 40 in six months but he’s still playing, it’s big news when Steffi Graf wins an event and equally big when Monica Seles doesn’t, and Goran Ivanisevic has discovered that Palm Springs is popular with older people.

Meanwhile, the ATP seems surprised to learn that bigger, taller players using trampolines for rackets hit the ball faster and harder than ever before, thus prompting a special players’ forum and creating a spirited controversy in a sport never short of one. Despite tennis’ stuffy image, this is a sport in which the color of somebody’s shirt can cause intense debate.

The rest of the year in tennis is just going to get better and better because we’re just now moving into the interesting part. This week’s Lipton International Players Championship--which the men players actually don’t like very much because of the best-of-five format and the equal prize money with the women--formally begins the major portion of the tennis season and signals the approach of the clay court campaign.

What’s likely to happen the rest of the way? Who knows? But clearly, there are some big issues still waiting to be addressed:

1. How long will Courier be No. 1? In one week, his lead shrank about 200 points to just 33 over No. 2 Stefan Edberg, so it may not be too long. But as Andrei Chesnokov said last week when asked the same question: “Who cares? To be No. 1 once is special feeling.”

2. Pete’s progress: Pete Sampras, who normally looks as if he found his clothes on the sidewalk, stunned many of his peers when he showed up at the IBM/ATP Tour awards banquet wearing a bright red, suede blazer. Joining Sampras on the dais, Patrick McEnroe blinked as he looked at the blazer.

“Can somebody turn the lights down a little bit?” he asked.

Could this be the year Sampras dresses the part of the Wimbledon champion.

3. Attention, Sweden: At the same banquet, Stefan Edberg picked up three awards, one as player of the year, meaning that he has three more awards than tournament titles this year. This can’t last, can it?

4. Monica update: Born in Yugoslavia, brought up in Florida, Monica Seles revealed last fall on a photo shoot in Malibu that she planned to buy property there. After a recent shopping trip in New York, Seles revealed she planned to buy property there. What will she say when she gets to the French Open? There’s a nice place on the Rue de Rivoli?

5. Photo of the year: Taken by tennis photographer Art Seitz, whose film Martina Navratilova once ripped from his camera, prompting a lawsuit in which Seitz was awarded damages of $1. Seitz rented a helicopter, flew over Steffi Graf’s swimming pool at the Polo Club in Boca Raton, Fla., and shot a picture of Graf sunbathing nude on her stomach.

The picture turned out to be pretty grainy and fuzzy, but not enough to cure the German press of acute Steffimania. A German magazine paid Seitz a reported six figures for the snapshot.

6. The winner is ... : The last three French Open men’s singles champions came from nowhere to win. They were, in succession, Michael Chang, Andres Gomez and Courier. So who’s turn is it this year? Bernd Karbacher?

7. Doubles whammy: All right, so Jim Pugh broke up with doubles partner Rick Leach. And Leach is teaming with John McEnroe to play Davis Cup in the U.S. quarterfinal match against Petr Korda and Karel Novacek of Czechoslovakia at the end of the month. So who is Pugh’s doubles partner at the Lipton? Korda. Think Pugh is giving away any state secrets?

8. How they rate: Are we beginning to see the decline of Ivan Lendl? If so, does that mean he will take that silly Legionnaire’s cap with him? Lendl seems to be on his way to sliding out of the top 10. At No. 8, he is at his lowest point in the rankings in 12 years.

9. How they rate II: What is going on with John McEnroe and Andre Agassi? McEnroe and Agassi, half of the Davis Cup team, are not exactly at the tops of their games. McEnroe at No. 34 is the lowest in his career and Agassi at No. 14 is the lowest he has been in four years.

10. Mac attack: Why is McEnroe playing Lipton. Simple: to get ready for Davis Cup. His entry reflects McEnroe’s level of interest in the Davis Cup, March 27-29 at Ft. Myers, Fla., because McEnroe has never before played Lipton.

Sign of the times: Think sponsors are hard to come by in tennis? Since tennis rookie Matrix Essentials signed on to become the title sponsor of the Evert Cup last month in Indian Wells, the Ohio hair care and beauty company nearly has had to fight off potential suitors with a racket. So far, Matrix has been contacted by Kraft, the Women’s Tennis Assn., and promoters Charlie Pasarell and Butch Buchholz about spreading its sponsorship dollars a little further.

By any other name: It may have escaped your attention, but Gabriela Sabatini made history last week at the Virginia Slims of Florida. She had a rose named after her, which is a first for a tennis player. The “Gabriela Sabatini Rose” is a fiery orange-red flower.

Rankings: Jon Leach and Brian MacPhie of USC are the No. 1 doubles team, according to the latest Volvo Tennis NCAA Division I rankings. The Trojans placed two doubles teams in the top 10. Joining teammates Leach and MacPhie are the No. 9-ranked duo of David Ekerot and Andras Lanyi.

In singles, Jose Luis Noriega of San Diego is ranked No 1, Alex O’Brien of Stanford is No. 2 and Mark Knowles of UCLA is No. 12. Stanford is the top-ranked men’s singles team, followed by TCU, No. 3 USC and No. 4 UCLA.

Sue Hawke and Nicole Storto of San Diego State are the No. 2-ranked women’s doubles team, Laxmi Poruri and Heather Willens of Stanford are No. 5, and Mamie Ceniza and Paige Yaroshuk of UCLA are No. 6. Florida freshman Lisa Raymond is ranked No. 1 in singles, Willens of Stanford is No. 4, Poruri is No. 14 and Noelle Porter of Pepperdine is No. 16.

Florida is the top-ranked women’s team, followed by No. 2 Stanford and No. 3 UCLA.

Tennis Notes

Top wheelchair tennis players will team with pros at the Mitsubishi Electronics wheelchair invitational Thursday through Sunday at the Lipton International, the only major tournament to include a wheelchair division. The top 16 men and top eight women will compete in the wheelchair division, including No. 3-ranked Brad Parks of San Clemente, No. 5 Jim Black of Long Beach and No. 11 Michael Foulks of San Diego. . . . Actor Cesare Danova has been appointed the director of croquet for the new Sherwood Tennis Club and spa in Hidden Valley in Thousand Oaks.

The Phoenix Challenge/Love-50 senior recreational tennis leagues hold their ninth national tournament April 21-26 in Palm Desert. The finals will be held at the Marriott Desert Springs. . . . Zina Garrison won the 1992 Family Circle “Player Who Makes a Difference” award and was awarded $20,000 for her favorite charities.

The Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles renewed its grant for the United States Tennis Assn.’s National Junior Tennis League with a $125,000 sponsorship. The program offers tennis lessons for more than 5,000 needy young people. . . . The Panasonic WINGS celebrity pro-am tennis and golf classic will be held May 1-2 at the Sierra-La Verne Country Club and the Claremont Club. The events raise money for Women in Need Growing Strong, a San Gabriel Valley YMCA-sponsored shelter for battered women, as well as other shelters for women and their children.