TENNIS / JERRY CROWE : Borg Is Not Quite Bjorn Again

If Bjorn Borg is finished playing top-level tennis, as he has indicated, he didn’t exactly go out in a blaze of glory.

After returning to the sport in 1991 after an eight-year absence, the five-time Wimbledon champion and six-time winner of the French Open never climbed higher than No. 762 in the ATP Tour computer rankings, losing all 12 of his matches before deciding at the end of last year to limit himself to senior tournaments and World TeamTennis.

Still trim and fit as he approaches his 38th birthday on June 6, Borg said he sometimes felt lost as he tried to regain his form.

“If you stay away for a long period of time, it’s difficult to find yourself on the court or to play with a lot of confidence,” he said last month in Anaheim, where he joined Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe and Mats Wilander for a senior tournament. “It’s almost like you forget how to play.”

Although Borg’s goal was to again play at Wimbledon and in the French Open, he never did.

“Losing or winning, that was not the main thing,” he said. “Obviously, I walk on the court trying to win, but I had fun playing tennis again. That was the major thing, the most enjoyable thing for me.”

And the results?

“It’s not the end of the world,” said Borg, who now wears his long hair, flecked with gray, in a pony tail. “It’s not like I’m sleepless. I would be 10 or 15 years ago, but today it’s not the most important thing for me in life.”

Connors, though, said all that losing frustrated Borg. He said Borg probably expected too much of himself when he launched his comeback with the same make of wooden racket he had used to win the French Open, the last of his Grand Slam titles, in 1981.

“He left for eight years, so he went back eight years and everybody else went ahead eight years, so he’s 16 years behind, the way I look at it,” Connors said. “He stayed in shape, but not grinding out matches and playing competitive tennis, it’s difficult. . . .

“And even though I’m sure he stayed in touch with tennis, he wasn’t in the mainstream. He came back and tried to play with the same equipment, and everybody else was playing with rackets as big as this room.

“To all of a sudden come back and see that and play against it . . . had to be a tough thing for him.”

Borg quickly switched to a graphite racket, but the losses continued to mount. His last match, a 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 defeat by U.S. Open semifinalist Alexander Volkov last November at Moscow, might have been Borg’s most encouraging, but didn’t change his plans to end his comeback.

“This is not my last match,” he told reporters in Moscow. “Just my last match . . . in the big league.”

*

Careful what you wish for: Connors and McEnroe were considered boorish and childish, their behavior a detriment to the game, when they ruled tennis in this country.

The current No. 1, gentlemanly Pete Sampras, is called boring.

“You take what you get,” Connors said. “Nobody’s ever satisfied, are they? When we came along, tennis was much different. We got it out of the country clubs and got the masses in there, so that 20,000 people would come and watch in person and millions of people would tune into the television.

“We were under scrutiny and under complaint every time we walked out there and played, but now it seems a lot of people would like to still see that.”

*

Venus rising: Venus Williams, widely hyped as the next big thing in women’s tennis, is expected to make her WTA Tour debut in the Virginia Slims of Los Angeles Aug. 8-14 at the Manhattan Country Club in Manhattan Beach.

Her father, Richard, said he will seek a wild-card entry into the tournament for his daughter if she maintains high marks in her school work.

“And I’ll tell you something, her grades are ahead of where they should be right now,” Richard said last week from Pompano Beach, Fla. “So, if I had to make that decision right now, she would play. She’s going out of her way to bring her grades (up to) exactly where they should be.”

Said Jan Diamond, tournament director for the Manhattan Beach tournament, “If she plays our event, we’d be ecstatic. I’ll keep my fingers crossed.”

Williams, 6 foot 2 and 130 pounds, was born in Long Beach and grew up in Compton before moving with her family to Florida almost three years ago. She will turn 14 on June 17.

Her father said she will be brought along slowly.

“At 14, Venus probably will play one or two tournaments,” he said. “At 15, she will be allowed to play about four or five. At 16, if she’s doing very well, she can turn professional, but she shouldn’t play more than eight or nine. At 17, she can play full-time.”

Said Diamond: “We don’t mind having the exclusive (this year).”

*

People’s choice: Along with Winona Ryder, Paul Newman, Julia Roberts, John Kennedy Jr., Meg Ryan and 44 others, MaliVai Washington is included in People magazine’s list of the 50 most beautiful people in the world.

Wrote People of the No. 28 player in the ATP Tour rankings, “Forget gangly John McEnroe and Pete Sampras; the tennis body (and legs) of today belongs to hard-hitting, hard-to-miss MaliVai Washington, 24. The up-and-comer . . . cracked the men’s top 20 last year, thanks to a rocket serve and a rock-like physique.

“Says tennis writer and TV commentator Bud Collins, ‘He’s a young Sidney Poitier. All the ladies are crazy about his quads. He’s the Quad-Squad guy.’ ”

Quad-Squad guy?