They’re Talking a Good Game but Solving Few Problems

Tennis has grown some. Tennis officials once claimed theirs was a problem-free sport. Now, they recognize that aspects of the professional game need rethinking.

Admitting to problems is only the first step, though. Formulating a plan and acting to solve the problems is the next. But now, tennis is so bogged down in talking and arguing about its problems that, it seems, they will never get solved.

Last week’s Chase Championships at New York underscored the point. The women’s season-ending event had all the appeal of a M*A*S*H unit. The tour’s premier player, Steffi Graf, appeared at Madison Square Garden with some reluctance. The week before in Philadelphia she retired against Jana Novotna, citing a back injury. Graf had already admitted she didn’t want to play the tournament at all, citing a knee injury.

Monica Seles, for whom there is still fading interest among fans, retired in her opening match, citing a shoulder injury. Conchita Martinez made an indelible impression as she lay prone on the court one night, receiving treatment for a strained hamstring. Her opponent the next night, Iva Majoli, required a seven-minute timeout because of a rib injury.

Besides the on-court attrition, two top players retired--the popular Gabriela Sabatini and the aloof Kimiko Date. There was a suggestion that the retirements of Sabatini and Date--both only 26--were somehow linked to the pressure to play tournaments so they could maintain positions in the rankings.

Everyone seems to acknowledge that things need to change, but seldom is there any movement.

Last week, for instance, the WTA Tour announced its revised rankings system, effective Dec. 23. The WTA will award points for advancement in tournaments, recognizing the quality of the opponents, and will drop the system based on the number of tournaments played.

But the new system also rewards those players--such as Arantxa Sanchez Vicario--who play 25 events a year and rack up points while seldom facing elite opponents. Although the plan is to build in an incentive for the top players to play each other more often, players will still find ways to duck each other.

Left unresolved is season length. This year was especially arduous, with Fed Cup for the women and Davis Cup for the men and the Olympics added to the already crowded schedule.

Martinez’s dull play in New York seemed to reflect the strain of a long season.

“We are one of the few sports that doesn’t have an off-season,” she said. “[With one month off] You really don’t have time to practice and get fit for next year, so you carry on your injuries to the next year.

“At the end of the year, everyone is injured. We play a lot of tournaments. It’s really a lot, way too much.”

Seles, indecisive about dealing with an injury, will probably sit out the beginning of next season and not defend her only Grand Slam title of this year, the Australian Open.

“There’s never a time for a break or to enjoy yourself, either from the victory or to learn from the losses,” Seles said.

What the tours must learn is that the tennis season needs to be shortened--both to protect the players, who, after all, are the product, and to provide logic for fans who find the “tennis season” a nebulous term anyway.

Davis Cup and Fed Cup should be played every other year, to give the players a break and the event more stature. Stop adding mega-events, like the Grand Slam Cup on the men’s side, and cluttering the schedule.

Stop talking about the problems and start doing something about them.

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Injuries and burnout are no less a problem on the men’s tour, and don’t think the men complain about their schedule any less than the women. Of special interest have been the stamina problems experienced by Pete Sampras during long matches.

After he was bothered by them in the U.S. Open, Sampras denied published reports that he suffers from anemia or has any other health problem. But he does have an inherited blood disorder called thalassemia minor, that can impair the blood’s ability to carry oxygen.

Both Sampras and his sister, Stella, inherited the disorder from their mother, Georgia. Stella Sampras, who is the women’s tennis coach at UCLA and a former professional, said thalassemia has never been a problem for her or Pete.

“We’ve had this all our lives,” she said. “I used to take iron pills, but they didn’t do anything. I don’t take anything for it and, to tell you the truth, I really don’t know that much about it. It has never affected me. I don’t think it’s been a factor for Pete, either. He’s had problems this year but I think it’s been because of fitness. He’s not been able to train as he usually would.”

According to Dr. Gary Schiller, assistant professor of medicine at UCLA, thalassemia minor can have little or no impact on the health of a person, whereas thalassemia major is a serious and often life-threatening disease.

“[Sampras] would show up on a blood test as a little anemic,” Schiller said. “He might have an enlarged spleen. But he probably has no problems with it.”

George Fareed, the U.S. Davis Cup physician, said Sampras told him about the disorder and it’s never been a big issue.

“He has a reasonable blood count,” Fareed said. “He’s never played at a deficit.”

Although Sampras also has ongoing stomach problems, the most likely cause of his fatigue was the fatal illness of his coach, Tim Gullikson. Sampras stopped and started his season, breaking off to be with Gullikson, then missed the start of the clay-court season after his death.

Tennis Notes

Billie Jean King, who led the U.S. team to the Fed Cup title this year, has told USTA officials that she will take next year off. . . . Tennis players interested in information that may make the search for a college athletic scholarship easier are invited to an informational meeting Dec. 8 at the Los Angeles Tennis Center at UCLA. The 5 p.m. meeting is sponsored by the Southern California Tennis Assn.