He’s Top-Notch

Larry Stefanki’s friends say that even in the worst of times, he bubbles with enthusiasm. These days, he is a glass of champagne.

Stefanki coaches the No. 2 tennis player in the world, Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia. He took over in late December, and less than a month later, his new pupil had won a Grand Slam tournament, the Australian Open.

In the world of tennis coaching, this is called hitting the mother lode.

“I wanted to coach him five years ago, before he won the French Open [in 1996],” Stefanki said. “I saw this great-looking, 6-foot-3 kid, who was a grinder, who would stay out there all day, who hits the ball low over the net, who can play on all surfaces.

“And now that it has happened, well, I am very fortunate, and very fired up.”

Stefanki is also very close to having yet another pupil ascend to the No. 1 ranking. It almost happened a week ago in London, when Kafelnikov had only to beat Thomas Johansson of Sweden in a quarterfinal match, but lost.

Pete Sampras, current No. 1, could lose that spot to Kafelnikov, at least temporarily, depending on how each does here in the Newsweek Champions Cup. Sampras is seeded first, Kafelnikov second in the event that will run Monday through Sunday at the Hyatt Grand Champions facility.

And although Patrick Rafter, Carlos Moya and Alex Corretja also have a shot at the top spot this week, depending on who does what and how the bonus points fall, Kafelnikov has the best shot, because he trails Sampras by only 67 points. Sampras would have to lose in the third round or before to lose his spot.

“Yevgeny is in a great position, because he didn’t do all that well this time of the year last year,” Stefanki said, meaning he has fewer points to defend and more potential to pick up big chunks of them. “He went out in the second round of the French last year and didn’t win a tournament until the week before Wimbledon, so until then, he has lots of chances to pile up points.”

Because Stefanki helped take Chilean Marcelo Rios to the No. 1 ranking for a total of six weeks last season, after starting with Rios when he was somewhere near No. 125 in the world, he is getting raves as the new “tennis guru” and a coaching genius. He laughs.

“You can’t make a mule into Secretariat,” he said. “These guys are awfully good before I get them.”

So what can a feisty little former All-American from California, who lives in La Quinta and within a stone’s throw of one of his two tour victories, add to the success of tennis superstars?

“The difference between who is No. 1 and who is, say, No. 14, is this much,” Stefanki said, holding up a pencil. “It is this thin. They are this close in skills.

“I make my guys realize how good they are. It is a cliche, but I am the ultimate positive thinker. I’m constantly telling Yevgeny, ‘You are that good. There is no reason why you can’t be No. 1 in the world.’ ”

Stefanki said that much of his positive approach can be traced directly to his father-in-law, John Brodie, the former all-pro quarterback with the 49ers who, later in life, became a regular on the senior golf tour and even won one event. The Brodie family keeps close ties to sports. Stefanki is married to the former Kelly Brodie. Kelly’s sister, Diane, is married to Atlanta Falcon quarterback Chris Chandler.

“John is the most incredible athlete I know,” Stefanki said. “How about an all-pro quarterback who also won a pro golf tournament? How good do you have to be to do that?

“He taught me that, every day, when you get up, you look at it as your day. If it turns out not to be, you learn from it and wake up the next day knowing it will be yours.”

Stefanki’s coaching techniques include some interesting motivational approaches.

When he was approached by Rios’ agent, in the days when Rios was a junior champion yet to crack the top 100 in the world rankings, Stefanki asked to hit with the often-surly Chilean. After about 15 minutes, Rios had yet to hit a ball inside the white lines.

Stefanki, intolerant of lack of effort, told Rios he was done with him, packed his bags and headed off. The agent pursued, sat the two down and they talked. Stefanki, now 41 but then still playing competitively on the senior tennis circuit, told Rios he wanted to play him.

“I said, ‘I don’t think you can beat me. I’m an old guy, but I don’t think you can handle me. I think I’d beat you, about 6-4,’ ” Stefanki said.

“Well, his eyes got big and we went out and played and he won 17 straight points. It got to about 4-love and 30-love and I called it off. He wanted to finish, to really stick it to me. But I just called him to the net and said, ‘Do you have an idea how good you are?’ ”

Rios got to No. 1. But, inexplicably, fired Stefanki just before the U.S. Open. Rios never communicated anything directly. Stefanki heard it from Rios’ agent.

“Actually, that put me in a great position,” Stefanki said. “People knew what I had done with Marcelo, and I was getting offers. But I knew Yevgeny pretty well. We had played a lot of golf together. And so that fit seemed perfect.”

In many ways, it would also be perfect if Kafelnikov made his ascent to the top of the rankings here, in a tournament that is the premier event in Stefanki’s home area of Southern California. And in a tournament that was won in 1985 by, incredibly, a club pro named Larry Stefanki.

He was 27 then, but the highest he would get in the rankings was 33rd, and that year he was around No. 150 when the tournament director of the event then held at La Quinta decided to give the touring pro from La Quinta a kind of courtesy wild card.

“It was what we called the Walter Mitty tournament,” said Steve Simon, director of marketing for the current Newsweek tournament and a tennis contemporary of Stefanki’s.

“The local pro gets a wild card, then gets to play every match on his own main court because he is the home pro, and then wins the tournament. Around here, we all loved it.”

Indeed, around here, they’ll be watching closely to see what Walter Mitty Stefanki has up his sleeve for the home folks this time. Whatever it is, he’ll be bubbly about it.

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Andre Agassi suffered a strained right hamstring and retired in the first set of his semifinal match against Jan-Michael Gambill at the $350,000 Franklin Templeton Classic at Scottsdale, Ariz. This leaves Agassi questionable for the Newsweek Champions Cup. The men’s draw was done Saturday and Agassi was seeded ninth and scheduled to play a qualifier in the first round. He was slotted in the same quarter of the draw as Kafelnikov.

One possible intriguing third-round match--should they get that far--would feature seventh-seeded Tim Henman vs. 10th-seeded Greg Rusedski. Henman and Rusedski, set to represent Great Britain against the United States in the first round of the Davis Cup, played doubles together and won a week ago in London.

In the other semifinal at Scottsdale, Mark Woodforde committed 33 unforced errors and lost to teenager and fellow Australian Lleyton Hewitt, 6-2, 6-2.

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Staff Writer Lisa Dillman contributed to this story.

Newsweek Champions Cup

The first Super 9 event of the year starts Monday:

* Where: Grand Champions Resort.

* Draw: 56 players.

* Who: All top 20 players entered.

* Surface: Hardcourt.

* Prize money: $2.2 million. Winner receives $361,000.