Is Game Served By On-Court Coach?

L.A. Times Archives

May 3, 1998 12 AM PT

ATLANTA —

For Pete Sampras, the great coaching experiment came about a week late.

A few days after losing to Frenchman Fabrice Santoro, 6-1, 6-1, his worst loss since 1990, Sampras found a small measure of humor when asked about the tour’s continuing trial period here.

“I could have used some coaching in Monte Carlo,” he said, smiling. “Paul [Annacone] noticed some things. I was returning serve way behind the baseline. Maybe I could have chipped and charged off his [Santoro’s] serve.”

In Atlanta and Munich, players are allowed to consult with their coach for two minutes during the first changeover after each set. The first event to experiment with on-court coaching was Hong Kong last month.

Other tournaments involved in the trial will be Gstaad, Switzerland, and Los Angeles in July. Sampras, Andre Agassi, Boris Becker and Patrick Rafter are scheduled to play the Mercedes-Benz Cup event at UCLA.

There has been a wide range of opinion about on-court coaching. Greg Rusedski called it “rubbish.” Other anti-coaching foes have been more circumspect, saying it creates an uneven playing field if an athlete cannot afford to travel with a coach.

Of the 32-player draw in Atlanta, five players did not designate a coach. Jim Courier and Mark Knowles share a coach--Brad Stine--but they didn’t play each other.

“Then you sit there and don’t do anything,” Annacone said of the possibility of a Courier-Knowles match. “There’s a lot of question marks. What I really like is the process, the way it’s being experimented and trying to be implemented. It’s a healthy way to do it. It wasn’t like the tour decided to do this. It’s basically an initiative from the players.

“It’s good we’re trying to do it at small tournaments, get feedback and see how it goes. If you look at the other parties involved--from a tournament point of view, from the fans, from TV, it gives a new twist to it. Now is that good or is that bad? You can argue it until you’re blue in the face.”

There was a different philosophy in Annacone’s playing days.

“We were always taught that part of being a professional tennis player is being able to sift through those things yourself on the court,” said Annacone, who reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon in 1984. “I think probably the best players, most of them, would feel the same way.”

Sampras notes that it makes the game more interesting, but said: “The only negative is that it’s the only sport that’s one on one. You just go out and it’s mano v. mano.”

As it turned out, a quick consultation with Annacone did help Sampras in Atlanta on Thursday. He was slogging through slow, muddy conditions against Davide Sanguinetti, Annacone told him to chip and charge off Sanguinetti’s serve and Sampras got through the second-round match, winning in three sets.

In the previous match, it was noted that he struggled against Alex O’Brien in the second set after the coaching interlude, but won, 6-2, 7-6 (7-5).

“I guess Paul’s fired,” Sampras said, joking.

FEAT OF CLAY

Todd Martin’s victory last month in Barcelona, Spain, is notable for reasons other than it was his first championship in more than two years:

* Martin was the first American to win a clay-court title in Europe since Sampras won in Rome in 1994.

* Martin also became the first American to win in Barcelona since Herbert Flam in 1957.

In the days before beating Spain’s Alberto Berasategui in the final, Martin wandered through the Real Club de Tennis in Barcelona and caught up on some history.

“Some of the pictures of the former champions are in the club in Barcelona,” he said. “So I was walking around and there were some pretty middle-of-the-road-type names I didn’t know. I didn’t know if they were Swedish, American or German, and Herb Flam was one of them. I wasn’t aware it had been so long.”

Martin, who missed most of 1997 because of elbow surgery, decided to skip the American clay-court events and opted for Europe. He was one of two American players in the draw at Barcelona. Jeff Tarango was the other.

“One reason I have decided over the last few years to play in Europe was that red clay is a little bit slower,” Martin said. “The footing is better. Finally, it’s what the French Open is on and it’s our job to prepare on red clay.”

Although he lost the next week to Agassi in the first round at Monte Carlo, Martin is now No. 35 in the world. Before Barcelona, he was 65th.

More important, he is injury-free for the first time since 1996.

“I could have some pretty serious health problems and I’d be better off than I was last year,” Martin said.

TRIBUTE TO A CHAMPION

Myron C. McNamara was more than a coach to his pupils. Often, his players called him a “best friend.”

McNamara, who died last month of a heart attack at 78, had a world full of friends during his remarkable life, on and off the tennis court.

A 1938 graduate of North Hollywood High, he was one of the top junior tennis players in the United States and played doubles with Jack Kramer. A serious automobile accident ended his hopes for an extended playing career, but he helped Kramer promote the budding professional tour, starting in 1955.

Not only did McNamara build several clubs--Riviera, Industry Hills and the Irvine Coast Racquet Club [now Balboa Bay Club]-- he was a prominent and highly respected coach. He was UC Irvine’s first men’s tennis coach, guiding the Anteaters to six NCAA Division II championships from 1966 to 1979.

He was the men’s coach at Arizona State in 1980-82, later returned to Irvine as an assistant and was inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame in 1997.

As a captain and a B-24 pilot, he flew 31 missions over Germany, and in 1944, McNamara led a 44-plane raid over Berlin in one of the first Allied missions over the city. Later, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters.

A memorial service is scheduled at 3:30 p.m. Friday at Riviera Country Club.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

MEN

1. Marcelo Rios: Well-armed in Hamburg?

2. Petr Korda: Fails to cartwheel over Sampras, Rios.

3. Pete Sampras: Survives rainy days in Georgia.

4. Andre Agassi: Seeks 1st clay-court title in 3 years.

5. Patrick Rafter: One match and out in Tokyo.

6. Carlos Moya: Moves to head of Spanish class.

7. Boris Becker: Look who’s back.

8. Greg Rusedski: Loses to semi-retired Becker.

9. Tim Henman: Struggles abound on clay.