TENNIS / THOMAS BONK : Best Is to Come, but Odd Already Has

The tennis season is only now hitting its stride, but it already has been sort of a strange year, even by tennis standards.

Who could have predicted what has happened so far in 1992? Jim Courier is No. 1, Jimmy Connors will turn 40 in six months but still is playing, it is 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. This is a sport in which the color of somebody’s shirt can cause intense debate.

The rest of the year in tennis should get better and better. 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.

Meanwhile, these issues remain:

1. How long will Courier be No. 1? In one week, his lead shrank about 200 points to only 33 over No. 2 Stefan Edberg, so it might 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 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.

This might be the year Sampras dresses the part of the Wimbledon champion.

3. Attention, Sweden: At the same banquet, Stefan Edberg won three awards, one as player of the year, meaning that he has three more awards than tournament titles this year.

4. Monica update: Born in Yugoslavia, brought up in Florida, Monica Seles revealed last fall during 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?

5. Photo of the year: Taken by tennis photographer Art Seitz, whose film Martina Navratilova once ripped from his camera. 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, but not enough to cure the German press of acute Steffimania. A German magazine reportedly paid Seitz in 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 whose 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 at the lowest level 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? To get ready for the Davis Cup March 27-29 at Ft. Myers, Fla. McEnroe has never before played in the Lipton.

Sign of the times: Since tennis rookie Matrix Essentials signed on to become the title sponsor of the Evert Cup last month in Indian Wells, the Ohio cosmetics 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.

Martina, etc.: Now that the lawsuit involving her former live-in companion, Judy Nelson, has been settled, will having her personal life in order help Navratilova’s game?

Two weeks before the out-of-court settlement with Nelson, Navratilova pulled out of the Matrix Essentials/Evert Cup in Indian Wells. Navratilova said she could not play because of flu, although some were skeptical. Now, Navratilova, 34, is taking more than a month off to prepare for one more charge at her most cherished prize, a 10th Wimbledon title.

Is it possible? Maybe not, but Navratilova already might have convinced Chris Evert, who said it wouldn’t be wise to count her out.

By any other name: 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.

Tennis Notes

Jon Leach and Brian MacPhie of USC are the No. 1 college 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.

Top wheelchair players will team with pros at the Mitsubishi Electronics 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.

The Phoenix Challenge/Love-50 senior recreational tennis leagues will 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 $20,000 for her favorite charities.