For Stevenson, Life Is Very Good

Alexandra Stevenson would love to talk about the Pan American Games and how she hung with some beach volleyball players and how one of them, Collin Smith from Hermosa Beach, might ask her out.

She would love to tell you about the man at a local restaurant Sunday night who said he had never paid attention to women’s tennis until Stevenson made it to the Wimbledon semifinals, a giddy qualifier who curtsied after her victories.

So Stevenson tells these stories when she isn’t asked and then sighs and answers the question.

Have you talked to your father since Wimbledon, Stevenson is asked Monday. “Nope,” the 18-year-old says, “I’ve never spoken to him.”

The father, of course, is basketball legend Julius Erving and the revelation of the relationship between Alexandra and Dr. J. exploded during Wimbledon.

Do you want to talk to him, Alexandra is asked. “No,” Alexandra says. “He is not a part of my life. It is my mom and me. That’s just great. [Speaking to her dad] is just not what I want to do. Talking about it is getting kind of old. It’s over.”

Stevenson has come to the Acura Classic and she begins her news conference by announcing that, “Hi, I’m Alexandra. I’m introducing myself. I’m very excited to be here. It’s great to be a young American woman playing tennis.”

Her life since Wimbledon, Stevenson says, has changed little. No new car, though she wants to test drive BMW and Volvo convertibles when she has some time. No new living quarters to replace the San Diego apartment she and her mother, Samantha, share, the apartment where her mother must use the laundry room and which is an onerous duty according to Alexandra.

“Life really hasn’t changed,” Alexandra says even if the next question for her is about a major segment of the recent “20-20” interview with Barbara Walters.

Before the interview, Stevenson says, she sternly told Walters that Stevenson was aware that Walters is known for making her interview subjects cry.

“I told her that she was not gonna make me cry,” Stevenson says. “My mom did get teary and even that General Schwarztenkopf guy cried.” According to Alexandra, Walters said that if generals cried, it was OK to cry on television. “But I didn’t,” Alexandra says proudly.

Having seen very little of the tape, all Alexandra says she noticed was that her hair looked terrible “and I looked fat. So I’m glad I haven’t seen the whole show.”

Samantha stands in the back of the room, watching her daughter and saying nothing. Samantha had been asked by Walters about her relationship with Erving, about whether love was involved and about the moral and ethical problems of becoming sexually involved with an interview subject. Samantha gave non-answer answers and still is not interested in pursuing these subjects.

Alexandra seems blithely unaffected by all this tabloid talk. She proceeded to tell of her experiences at the Pan Am Games, where Stevenson was seeded No. 1 but was upset in the semifinals by Maria Vento of Venezuela. More fun than the tennis, at least to hear Alexandra tell it, was hanging with the beach volleyball players.

There is no pressure, she says, to follow up her stunning Wimbledon triumphs. She is continuing to work with Craig Kardon, best known as Martina Navratilova’s coach and now, as Alexandra says, being loaned to the Stevenson’s as part of the United States Tennis Assn., coaching program.

And so life continues to be a great adventure. The summer hard-court season sparkles in front of Stevenson. Her favorite surface in her favorite country. “I can hardly wait,” Stevenson says, “for tomorrow night.”

Tonight Stevenson will play Anke Huber, a steady, accomplished player. Stevenson will be expected to win by those who watched her at Wimbledon. The players will expect the hard-hitting Huber, who has been a top-10 player, to win. That is the new reality for Stevenson. Fame has arrived before she has proven herself as a pro.

“I’m psyched,” Stevenson says. “Everybody’s gunning for me? I’m gunning for them too.”

There was a big smile. No curtsy this time though.

*

Conchita Martinez of Spain beat Sylvia Plischke of Austria, 6-3, 6-3, in the featured first-round match Monday night.

Martinez, 27, needed 62 minutes to outplay her opponent, winning the first five games before Plischke could hold serve. The two traded service breaks in the second set before Martinez won the last three games on Plischke’s third double fault.

Amy Frazier upset fifth-seeded Nathalie Tauziat, 3-6, 7-5, 6-2, and this continues a sudden resurgence by the 26-year-old who calls her game “one-dimensional.”

At No. 24, Frazier has achieved her highest ranking since she was No. 22 at the 1996 U.S. Open. Frazier, the 1994 Acura Classic champion, reached the semifinals of the Bank of the West tournament in Stanford two weeks ago, with the help of upsets over Huber and Barbara Schett and then made it to the quarterfinals of the TIG Classic in La Costa last week by upsetting Steffi Graf.

It took 1997 French Open winner Iva Majoli only 25 minutes to lose the first set in her desultory 6-1, 6-4 loss to Julie Halard-Decugis. Majoli, 21, has seen her ranking fall to No. 80 and she needed a wild-card invitation to join the main draw here.

Acura Classic

STADIUM COURT

Beginning at 10 a.m.

Corina Morariu vs. Sandrine Testud (8)

Mirjana Lucic vs. Lisa Raymond

Irina Spirlea vs. Natasha Zvereva

Beginning at 7 p.m.

Serena Williams (6) vs. Elena Likhovtseva

Alexandra Stevenson vs. Anke Huber.

COURT 4

Beginning at 10 a.m.

Ruxandra Dragomir vs. Anne Kremer

Barbara Schett (7) vs. Ines Gorrochategui

Patty Schnyder vs. Magui Serna