TENNIS / THOMAS BONK : How Much Security Do They Need?

Monica Seles’ stabbing during a match in Hamburg, Germany, is bound to raise the question of security at tennis matches, but there might not be very much that tournament officials can do. Metal detectors at the gates? Armed security on the court? Barbed wire atop the stands?

Several years ago at a tournament at Manhattan Beach, someone in the stands threw a light bulb filled with paint that splattered on the court before a match. Despite the fact that nearly 10,000 people were in the stands, the person got away.

Tennis’ largest events, the Grand Slams, draw thousands of spectators each day. At the 1992 U.S. Open, more than 520,000 showed up to watch tennis. Security at these events is often a nightmare, but is usually confined to shepherding the players to the court and back.

However, U.S. Open tournament director Steve DeVoe said that the big events generally are more secure than smaller tournaments.

“At the small tournaments, you get people inside the clubhouse or in the locker room who just don’t belong there,” he said. “Happens all the time.”

DeVoe said the best response to what happened in Hamburg is merely to take proper precautions, do what the experts feel is correct, then play tennis as usual.

“You simply can’t let these kind of terrible acts change the way society runs,” he said. “If you do, then you’ve lost.”

Is it too early to pick a French Open favorite? Not for Jack Kramer, the Hall of Famer, who doesn’t count a Roland Garros title among his Grand Slam victories that include a Wimbledon crown and two U.S. national championships, but who nevertheless knows a dirtball champion when he sees one.

And before you can say red clay, Kramer can name the winner.

“It’s really almost a lock for Jim Courier, unless something goes wrong with his desire at the last moment,” Kramer said. “All the other guys, his chief competitors, they’re best on other surfaces.”

Fast-court specialists in this group include top-ranked Pete Sampras, third-ranked Stefan Edberg, No. 4 Boris Becker and No. 6 Goran Ivanisevic.

A couple of others ranked in the top 10, No. 5 Peter Korda and No. 9 Sergi Bruguera, are clay-court lovers but have failed to show they are capable of winning a Grand Slam title, so they aren’t taken seriously yet.

Of course, No. 7 Andre Agassi wears the hallowed Wimbledon crown on his shaggy bleached hair and made it to the French Open final in both 1990 and 1991, so he can’t be counted out even if he isn’t blowing into Paris with a full head of steam.

Kramer, though, isn’t quite sold on Agassi.

“He’ll play himself out of it,” Kramer said. “If he plays Courier, watch, he’ll make too many errors on the clay.”

But before Courier mounts the stairs into the stands Sunday afternoon June 6, shakes hands with Jean Borotra and claims his third consecutive French Open trophy, Kramer says it might be wise to sound two words of caution: Ivan Lendl.

Believe it or not, Lendl at 33 has a shot at his third French Open title, which he last won in 1987 in a four-set battle with Mats Wilander. Kramer pointed out that Lendl is playing a lot more clay-court events this year to prepare for the French Open, which he skipped in 1990 and 1991 to chase his Wimbledon obsession.

“I think he’s given up on the idea of winning at Wimbledon,” Kramer said. “He’s positioning himself like a trainer does with an old horse getting ready for one more big race. It might be to win the French.”

Doubles, anyone? Jim Grabb had surgery on his right shoulder last week to remove torn cartilage and is expected to be out of action for at least four months. That means that U.S. Davis Cup captain Tom Gorman is going to have to find a new doubles team for the qualifying round in September. Grabb and Richey Reneberg were the doubles team for the United States in the first-round loss at Australia.

Find younger linesmen: Look out. Jimmy Connors is starting his own tennis tour. Actually, it’s sort of a benign adventure, a senior’s tour for 35-and-over players that includes three stops in its inaugural campaign. One of them is scheduled for Sept. 29-Oct. 3 at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, where the 40-year-old Connors will cross rackets with Roscoe Tanner, 41, Ilie Nastase, 46, and others.

Free publicity: Michael Mewshaw has been on a promotional tour for his book “Ladies of the Court: Grace and Disgrace on the Women’s Tennis Tour,” but he probably received more valuable publicity from the promoters of the recent Lipton International Players Championship in Key Biscayne, Fla., in a dispute over press credentials.

George Pharr, vice president of sales and marketing for the event, said Mewshaw had been issued press credentials for the tournament, but that they had been issued in error. Mewshaw said he was supposed to cover the tournament for Racquet magazine, but the editor of the publication recanted on Mewshaw’s assignment after talking with Pharr.

Mewshaw’s credentials problem occurred two days after the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel had published a story about the book and its account of sexual abuse on the women’s tour. Pharr said the timing of the cancellation of Mewshaw’s credentials and the newspaper story was a coincidence.

Tennis Notes

To the winners go the spoils? You bet. Wimbledon’s increase in prize money for this year’s event means that the men’s champion gets $481,900 and the women’s champion $434,500.

Winners in the singles events at the 59th Southern California Senior Sectional Championships were Robert Piken of Studio City in the men’s 25, Larry Barnett of Los Angeles and Helen Park Bates of Whittier in the 30s, Lon Shapiro of Los Angeles and Kathy LeSage of Santa Barbara in the 35s, Bob Pierce of Los Angeles in the men’s 40, Tom Leonard of South Pasadena in the men’s 45, Dick Johnsrud of Riverside and Uta Hegberg of Oceanside in the 50s, Gordon Davis of Encino and Audrey Folden of Claremont in the 55s, Mel Lewis of Inglewood in the 60s, Jack Simpson of Van Nuys in the 65s and John Jenson of Newport Beach and Eleanor Harbula of Sylmar in the 70s. In the men’s 85, 88-year-old Ralph Larson of Santa Barbara defeated Ron Brandon, also 88, of Anaheim, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.