TENNIS / JERRY CROWE : Top Players Slam the Door on L.A.

This year’s Grand Slam event winners--Pete Sampras, Steffi Graf, Sergi Bruguera, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario and Conchita Martinez--have at least one other thing in common.

They all have left Los Angeles off their summer itineraries.

Neither Sampras, winner of the Wimbledon and Australian Open championships, nor Bruguera, winner of the French Open, is entered in the Los Angeles Open Aug. 1-7 at the L.A. Tennis Center at UCLA.

And Graf, Sanchez Vicario and Martinez, winners of the Australian, French and Wimbledon titles, respectively, are passing up the Virginia Slims of Los Angeles Aug. 8-14 at Manhattan Country Club in Manhattan Beach.

Sampras’ decision, made almost a year ago, to skip the only Los Angeles event on the ATP Tour is especially disappointing.

Winner of four of the last five Grand Slam tournaments, including consecutive Wimbledon titles, Sampras, 22, is practically a native son. Although he was born in Washington, D.C., he grew up in the Southland, playing in Southern California Tennis Assn. junior tournaments and attending Palos Verdes High for two years before turning pro in 1988.

An appearance this year in a tournament he won in 1991 and had entered in all but one year since he turned pro would have made for a triumphant homecoming.

Said Andre Agassi, who is entered in the L.A. Open along with, among others, Boris Becker, Michael Chang and two-time defending champion Richard Krajicek: “For one of the players not to think Pete’s a level above everybody else, they must be hiding out somewhere and not watching any tennis at all. . . .

“He’s doing everything better than everybody else right now.”

Sampras, scheduled to play in Washington this week and in Toronto next week, will take a week off before playing in two more tournaments before the U.S. Open, which starts Aug. 29.

“It would be great to have Pete, but Pete’s played here so often,” said Bob Kramer, tournament director for the L.A. Open. “Our thought is, if a guy like that plays every other year, it’s going to be a huge deal. . . .

“We’ll work on Pete for ’95.”

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Friendly rivals: Agassi, asked to describe his relationship with Sampras: “We’re just platonic.”

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Waiting game: Venus Williams, widely touted as the next great player in women’s tennis, has changed her plans and will not make her WTA Tour debut in the Virginia Slims of Los Angeles.

“We asked Venus not to play and she agreed not to play,” said her father, Richard. “She just turned 14 (on June 17). She needs to grow up a little bit and have time to be a little girl a little longer.”

Williams, 6 feet 2 and 130 pounds, was born in Long Beach and grew up in Compton before moving to Florida almost three years ago.

Her father said she could play in the Manhattan Beach tournament if she maintained high marks in school, but he had second thoughts after Jennifer Capriati’s recent problems.

“She went far beyond the call of duty to secure those grades,” Williams said of his daughter, “and I really feel (asking her not to play is) sort of unfair.

“But at the same time, once she goes out to play, even if it’s as an amateur, her life will change. So, we want to make sure we don’t change it too soon.”

He said his daughter probably won’t make her WTA Tour debut until next year.

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Color man: Bud Collins, NBC commentator and Boston Globe columnist, didn’t disappoint when he was enshrined this month in the International Tennis Hall of Fame at Newport, R.I.

“His enshrinement wardrobe? In a word, splendid,” reported Jim Greenidge of the Globe. “A white double-breasted sport jacket, a light blue shirt with contrasting tie, set off by ultra-bright orange pants, red slip-on cloth slippers . . . and no socks.”

Said Collins: “The rule is that no socks should be worn between May 1 and Oct. 1, except for the last two days of Wimbledon when I meet the Dutchess of Kent.”

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Who wears short shorts? Agassi doesn’t wear short shorts.

Said Agassi, asked about the baggies he and Sampras started wearing last month: “I think you’re going to look back at tennis a few years from now and it’s going to be like looking back at basketball when they used to wear those little shorts.

“You look back and think, ‘Wow, those don’t look so good.’ ”

Tennis Notes

Steffi Graf, Conchita Martinez and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario are entered in the Toshiba Tennis Classic Aug. 1-7 at La Costa Resort & Spa. . . . French Open finalist Mary Pierce has pulled out of the La Costa event and the Virginia Slims of Los Angeles, where Martina Navratilova will make her final Southland appearance. . . . Pete Sampras recently became the seventh player to pass the $10-million mark in career earnings, joining Ivan Lendl, Stefan Edberg, Boris Becker, John McEnroe, Navratilova and Graf.