Connors, an Enduring Classic, Feeds ‘70s Nostalgia : Tennis: Wild-card berth makes him main draw of men’s tournament that begins Monday at UCLA.

It’s so hip.

First, the Eagles’ reunion tour. Then, “The Brady Bunch Movie.”

And now, for your 1970s retro-event of the summer, Jimmy Connors has been given a wild-card spot in the main draw of the Infiniti Open tournament, which begins Monday at UCLA’s Los Angeles Tennis Center. He will play a first-round singles match Tuesday night against Cristiano Caratti of Italy. He also will play doubles with Jim Courier on Wednesday night.

Connors ruled the tennis world from 1974 to ‘77, an era that recently has enjoyed a rebirth in 1990s popular music and fashion. But unlike the ‘70s kitsch that probably will remain resurrected for little more than a few strobe-light beats among the ultra-cool before hipsters find a new trend, Connors is an enduring classic.

And unlike John Travolta and polyester, it’s not as if Connors were making a comeback. He never actually left. He won eight Grand Slam titles between 1974 and ‘83, and he was a force on the tour for nearly two decades.

The most recent of his 109 singles titles came six years ago, but the ever-defiant Connors has refused to say die--in 1991, at 39, he reached the semifinals of the U.S. Open. Recently, he has been tearing up the newly created Champions Tour for players 35 and over, and he also pops up now and again in ATP events.

“I keep doing this basically because I still love playing tennis,” Connors said recently.

The only other ATP event he has entered this year was last month at Halle, Germany, and Connors surprised many by advancing to the quarterfinals before losing to Marc Rosset of Switzerland.

“A lot of guys are young and new to the tour and they haven’t been able to see me play,” he said. “They might have heard things from the past, but they don’t know how I still work at it. Maybe I caught a few guys off guard.”

Connors, 42, keeps himself in shape on his ranch in Santa Ynez. After taking his son, Brett, and his daughter, Aubree-Leigh, to school each morning, he returns for a few hours of tennis and exercise.

“I don’t want to do it on a full-time basis, but I enjoy playing in a tournament here and there at places that I enjoy and [where I] have friends,” he said. “That tends to bring out the better tennis in me.”

Connors has won four championships in the Los Angeles tournament, the most recent of which was 11 years ago. He also won the 1971 NCAA singles title while playing one year at UCLA.

“Now, to be able to come back there and play in the new stadium and with all the history that the area holds for me is great,” he said.

Likewise, fans will probably show up in droves to glimpse Connors because he represents so much history himself. It has been 21 years since Connors’ flagship year, when he won the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. Consider his opponents in those finals: Phil Dent and Ken Rosewall, whom he met in the latter two.

Connors is one of those rare, enduring figures who straddles several decades with relative ease.

Even sometimes terse Goran Ivanisevic of Croatia, the tournament’s top-seeded player, seemed giddy at the prospect of playing the legend.

“Hopefully, I will get a chance to play him in L.A.,” he said. “It will be nice for me to say before he really retires that I played with Connors.”

If they do meet, the match would epitomize old school vs. new school tennis. Connors is a relic of the days of long, gutsy rallies--before monster serves set the game on amphetamines. Tennis has undergone a revolution since Connors’ day, and Ivanisevic is carrying the flag.

Ivanisevic and 10th-seeded Greg Rusedski of Great Britain were the tour’s leading servers last year, recording serves of 136 m.p.h. Third-seeded Richard Krajicek of the Netherlands, winner of the tournament in 1992 and ‘93, has recorded a serve of 134 m.p.h., and second-seeded Michael Stich of Germany has had serves clocked at 133 m.p.h.

But Connors, never one to let his opponent see him sweat--even if he is at nearly a two-decade disadvantage in age--was characteristically unimpressed.

“The best way to go about playing guys like that is the way I’ve always done, just step in there and try to take what they throw at me, get my racket on it, get the ball in play and give myself a chance to win the point,” he said.

“I watch a little bit of tennis. These guys are big and strong and they hit the ball much harder than the way a lot of guys used to, but I enjoy the challenge of being able to pit my game against theirs and figuring out some way to beat them.”

The question is, will Connors be sporting his 1967-vintage Wilson T-2000 metal racquet that he used long after the company stopped making them?

Now that would be hip.