Low-Key Edberg Finds Another High Moment

The black limos were parked at the curb and the floral arrangements were in place beside the casket, but suddenly, the old guy began to sputter and wheeze. Cancel the wake. Stefan Edberg is alive and well.

Those who follow the U.S. Open tennis tournament, and especially those who broadcast and write about it, had Edberg dead and gone the moment the draw was completed last Thursday. Edberg, 30, on his announced final tour of tournament tennis, drew Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek of the Netherlands in the first round.

Too bad, everybody thought. Tough way to finish up a record string of 54 consecutive Grand Slam tournament appearances, dating back to Wimbledon of 1983. The expectation was that the 6-foot-5 Krajicek would fire a barrage of 125-mph serves at the poor old geezer and Edberg would leave, battered and bloody but with head high, recalling all he has achieved for so long.

Edberg left with head high Tuesday, all right.

But that was thanks to a 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 rout of the fifth-seeded Dutchman on Stadium Court in only 1 hour 44 minutes. In fact, the only blood letting in this one occurred in the second set, when Krajicek had to call the trainer after cutting himself on a sharp edge of his towel.

So, Edberg’s long goodbye gets longer. He will next play Bernd Karbacher of Germany, a decent player who strikes fear in the hearts of few, and may be able to get all the way out to the fourth round, probably against Todd Martin, before the organ music is resumed.

For Edberg, it was the 175th victory in Grand Slam events, a remarkable record for a remarkable player with a non-remarkable personality.

Edberg is as controversial as a Swedish meatball.

His longtime coach, Tony Picard, was asked Tuesday for some anecdotes about his longtime student and friend.

“Can’t think of any,” Picard said.

Paul Haarhuis of the Netherlands, a top-20 player, is one month younger than Edberg and has played--and lost to--Edberg five times. He was asked about any off-court time he has spent with Edberg.

“We’ve gone to dinner a couple of times,” Haarhuis said. “He is a wonderful guy. He can be fun, but I wouldn’t say he puts you under the table laughing. I think my longest conversation with him is 3 minutes 8 seconds.”

Other people who know him say Edberg likes to play golf, and plays to a 17 handicap. They add that he used to tell a lot of Norwegian jokes, but stopped that, and that he likes to spend time with his wife and daughter.

At last count, Edberg trailed the McEnroe-Connors-Agassi tandem in the category of loud vulgarities uttered in front of crowds of 15,000 or more, 867-0.

Clearly, the National Enquirer is not waiting to do this story.

“I don’t know anybody who doesn’t like him,” Haarhuis said. “Unless you are talking about the guys he beats all the time, like me.”

Edberg is much the same player and person today as the teenager who walked into the UCLA tennis stadium in the summer of 1984 and won the gold medal, when tennis was coming back into the Olympic Games as a demonstration sport.

“I remember watching him warm up for the Olympics,” said Mark Winters of the Southern California Tennis Assn. “I said, ‘Wow.’ Now I watch him play, and I still say, ‘Wow.’ ”

That was six Grand Slam titles and more than $20 million in prize money ago, and the quiet blond from Vaxjo, Sweden, has just kept on going, a tennis Energizer bunny with a little gray around the temples.

Even when you knew better, Tuesday looked like any other day for Edberg, who made the pre-match walk from the locker rooms to the stadium, marching behind the towering Krajicek, signing autographs all along the way. The autograph-seekers, like just about everybody else, saw this as a historic day, as Edberg’s last Grand Slam match. Edberg treated it as another day at the office.

And when he was done putting Krajicek through the shredder, he indulged himself for only a few seconds, stepping back onto the court, arms held high in triumph as the appreciative crowd stood and cheered.

Afterward, after some prompting, Edberg said he would like to be remembered as “a champion and a sportsman.”

Which sounds like something that would go nice on a tombstone, except that all reports of Edberg’s demise on this day at the U.S. Open proved premature.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Featured Matches

Today’s featured matches at the U.S. Open:

DAY SESSION

Beginning 8 a.m. PDT

STADIUM COURT

* Men--No. 12 Todd Martin vs. Younes El Aynaoui.

* Women--No. 15 Gabriela Sabatini vs. Ann Grossman; No. 8 Lindsay Davenport vs. Henrieta Nagyova.

GRANDSTAND

* Men--No. 9 Wayne Ferreira vs. David Nainkin.

* Women--No. 13 Brenda Schultz-McCarthy vs. Barbara Rittner; No. 4 Conchita Martinez vs. Nathalie Tauziat.

NIGHT SESSION

Beginning 4:30 p.m. PDT

STADIUM COURT

* Women--No. 2 Monica Seles vs. Laurence Courtois.

* Men--No. 2 Michael Chang vs. Neville Godwin.