Not a Bad Showing for 45th-Ranked Player

By BILL DWYRE

March 10, 1998 12 AM PT

TIMES SPORTS EDITOR

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. —

Had you just walked in from Mars to watch the evening’s featured match on Stadium Court Monday at the State Farm Evert Cup tennis tournament, you would have been looking for Japan’s Al Sugiyama, ranked No. 17 in the world, to handle her opponent, a blond German ranked No. 45.

But since those on hand were presumably of this planet--the Jensen brothers were playing the next match so they didn’t count--everybody knew that the German, last name Graf, would probably do better than her ranking indicated.

And so, 43 minutes later, when Steffi Graf had completed her dismantling of Sugiyama, 6-0, 6-1, the only real surprise was how well Graf had played.

Graf, with 21 Grand Slam titles in a career that may eventually stamp her as the greatest ever, was playing just her fourth match of the season. She had spent the last eight months recovering from knee surgery and pondering whether she really wanted to do all the training and fight through all one must fight through to get back to the her former level. Monday night’s lopsided victory answered that question in two ways:

* Graf played like Graf. She hit hard, walked fast and won quickly. Sugiyama managed just seven points in the first set.

* Afterward, during one of those fan-friendly on-court interviews, Graf was asked what she missed the most about being away from tennis. She replied, “Playing like that, in front of a big crowd like this.”

Later, when asked if she felt so good Monday night that she might be looking for a match with Martina Hingis as a gauge to just how far she has come back, Graf backpedaled a bit.

“No . . . I’m just starting again,” she said. “As I said earlier in the tournament, I don’t see myself being able to be at that level right now.”

Could have fooled Sugiyama.

The ATP Players Council is expected to give the go-ahead to an experiment regarding on-court coaching when it meets at Indian Wells later this week, according to a tour spokesperson.

The group will determine which tournaments will be designated for the experiment. There are several options regarding the test but it appears likely the on-court coaching will be limited to two minutes at the end of each set.

Most likely, the trial will start at an event in Hong Kong the week of April 6. Several tournaments have expressed interest in holding the experiment, including the Los Angeles event, tour officials said.

Andre Agassi said he is in favor of it. But he wants the coach to be wired for sound, so television viewers can listen in.

“The people at home need to know what he [the player] is being told,” Agassi said. “I think the coaches need to have press conferences and answer for the things they said. I’m serious.”

Said Martina Hingis: “I don’t think it’s a bad idea to have it after the first set. For me, it doesn’t really matter. It’s not a big difference. I think it would be very good for young players, so they would get experience. Sometimes, starting out, they don’t know what to do, so the coach could help.”

The attendance at this combined event is starting at an all-time high, with the first two days, Friday and Saturday, drawing best-ever crowds of 7,720 and 9,007, respectively. Sunday’s 8,922 was a handful below last year’s 9,120, but then Monday picked up again with a best-ever evening draw of 7,392 to go with the usual 11,500 sellout for the day session.

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Today’s

Featured Matches

* STADIUM COURT (10 a.m.)

* Amanda Coetzer, South Africa vs. Joannette Kruger, South Africa

* Wayne Ferreira, South Africa vs. Patrick Rafter, Australia

* Pete Sampras vs. Todd Martin

* Natasha Zvereva, Belarus vs. Steffi Graf, Germany.

* STADIUM COURT (6:30 p.m.)

* Dominique Van Roost, Belgium vs. Venus Williams.

* CLUBHOUSE (10 a.m.)

* Anna Kournikova, Russia vs. Conchita Martinez, Spain