TENNIS / WENDY WITHERSPOON : Tanner’s Hard Serve Finds a Place to Land

Some of the nation’s legendary tennis players have been dusting off their racquets and playing in the increasingly popular senior tournaments.

In Thousand Oaks, one of the hardest servers of yesteryear has been practicing his aces in preparation for the Pacific Southwest Invitational, a senior tournament scheduled for Aug. 1-4 at UCLA’s Los Angeles Tennis Center.

Roscoe Tanner, 40, won the 1977 Australian Open and lost to Bjorn Borg in the 1979 Wimbledon final. He is currently director of tennis at Sherwood Country Club.

The senior tournament, a singles and doubles event featuring eight former tennis greats, is being held in conjunction with the Volvo Tennis/Los Angeles tournament. Tanner will compete in the senior tournament with Vijay Amritraj, Peter Fleming, Bob Lutz, Sandy Mayer, Hank Pfister and two other players to be announced.

“Most of the people remember the guys that are on the 35-and-over (tour) because we were sort of there as tennis hit its boom,” Tanner said.

But some of the players of the boom era can still be found in main events. Borg and John McEnroe head the 32-player draw for Volvo Tennis/Los Angeles. Borg, 36, is eligible for over-35 senior tournaments and McEnroe, 33, soon will be eligible.

Senior tennis tournaments are often staged in conjunction with main tour events. “I think in the long run the seniors will start to be so strong that it is going to have its own event,” Tanner said.

Tanner recently returned from playing in a senior tournament held with the Canadian Open in Toronto. He reached the semifinal, but the remainder of the tournament was rained out. “I feel like because I’m starting to play more and more matches, now it really does feel good. I’m getting plenty of practice and training at Sherwood,” Tanner said.

One of Tanner’s practice partners at Sherwood is Cal Lutheran’s Tomislav Zelenovic, who was ranked No. 19 in the NCAA Division III this season.

“I can help (Zelenovic) out a little bit in strategies, and he also has that youth and excitement that keeps me out on the court a little longer,” Tanner said.

Tennis lovers: Tug and Myrna Craig of Chatsworth are tennis enthusiasts. Both are members of adult league tennis teams that won their matches at the district tournament July 19 at Los Caballeros Sports Village in Fountain Valley and advanced to the sectional tournament.

Tug, 61, is Myrna’s biggest fan, and Myrna, 50, is Tug’s, but they rarely are able to cheer for each other.

“A lot of the time, we both have matches going on at the same time. We’re too busy playing,” Tug said.

Myrna plays on a women’s 4.5 level team, which defeated the San Gabriel representative team at the district tournament, 4-1.

Tug’s team, of which he is the captain, defeated San Gabriel, 3-2.

The sectional tournament will be held at Los Caballeros Sports Village on Aug. 21-23.

The Craigs, who have been married seven years, met across a tennis net. They have a house full of trophies. Tennis keeps the Craigs feeling youthful and happy, they say. “I used to play golf, but I gave that up for tennis,” Tug said. “I figure another 30 or 40 years and I’ll start playing golf again.”

Climbing back: Three months ago, Steve Wiere hit rock bottom.

Wiere once was a brilliant junior and college tennis player. He was ranked as high as No. 3 in the under-16 division in the Southern California Tennis Assn. and No. 5 in the 18s.

Wiere led Calabasas High to four consecutive Southern Section 3-A Division titles between 1983-86. In 1984 he teamed with Steve Oliver, and the sophomore pair became the youngest doubles team in 52 years to win a Southern Section championship.

As a freshman at Northern Illinois, he was the school’s first NCAA individual qualifier since the brother combination of Tom and Tim Gullickson in the early 1970s. Wiere played No. 1 singles for three seasons at Northern Illinois before turning professional.

But in April, the 24-year-old Wiere was losing badly in a qualifying tournament for the Acapulco Open. He told himself he was there just for vacation and realized that his heart was no longer in tennis.

He also knew that his losses had become too frequent. He had fallen in the ATP rankings from No. 613 in September, 1991, to No. 623.

Wiere let his racquet fall to the ground and didn’t pick it up again for three months, his longest absence from the sport in 18 years.

Wiere returned to his Malibu apartment. Each day he lowered his Jet Ski from his deck to the surf and rode. During his vacation, he discovered how important tennis is to him.

“It gave me a while to look at what else I could do with my life,” he said. “I thought there was a couple other things I could do, but it was going to take a lot of effort and I figured that if I could put that much effort into my tennis, I could do a lot better.”

Wiere also was inspired by McEnroe’s success this month at Wimbledon, where the aging tennis star advanced to the semifinals.

“If he can be that good at that age, I guess I shouldn’t be washed up at 24,” Wiere said.

Rejuvenated, the sixth-seeded Wiere played his first tournament in the Santa Barbara Open last weekend, winning five matches, including a 7-5, 6-2 quarterfinal win over third-seeded Stuart Greenburg. The tournament will continue Saturday and Sunday.

Wiere is also playing in the pre-qualifying tournament for Volvo Tennis/Los Angeles this week and is seeded second. He beat Chris Ganz, 6-4, 6-1, Thursday in the first round. The singles finalists of the 32-player pre-qualifying tournament, held at The Racquet Centre in Studio City, earn a berth in the qualifying tournament for Volvo Tennis/Los Angeles.

Wiere is scheduled to play today in the second round of the pre-qualifying tournament against Bryan Twente. If Wiere wins, he will have a busy day Saturday.

He also is scheduled to play in an 8:30 a.m. semifinal Saturday in the Santa Barbara Open. Then, he will have an 11 a.m. quarterfinal match at The Racquet Centre in the pre-qualifying tournament. He said he may also play a 2:30 p.m. first-round match in the Glendora Open tournament Saturday.

For Wiere, the pre-qualifying tournament is the most important, and he will default the other tournament matches Saturday if necessary. The final of the pre-qualifying tournament is Sunday.

Wiere, who fell to 720 in the rankings during his hiatus, is still cautious about pronouncing he is back for good, saying he will try to relax and enjoy local tournaments. “After then, I can give a better assessment of how I feel about this crazy sport,” he said.