A Slashing Look At U.s. Tennis

April 11, 1988|By Bernie Lincicome.

Those who insist U.S. tennis is dead were not at the UIC Pavilion this week, where witnesses can testify that it wasn`t even breathing hard.

Tim Mayotte smothered Paul Annacone Sunday to polite applause and imaginary perspiration, the significance not in the result but in the coincidence of two American male tennis players meeting in the same championship final, an occurrence roughly as frequent as a citizen`s arrest.

More than that, the semis were all American also, and seven of the eight quarterfinalists were from the U.S. It was enough to make you want to run out and buy a new flag for the country club.

``I wouldn`t read too much into one week,`` Mayotte said. ``This is a nice shot in the arm, but you have to have consistency throughout the year. It remains to be seen if things will change or not.``

Things such as the raw sore that no American male tennis player has won a Grand Slam tournament in four years.

Things such as the highest-ranked American male in the world is Jimmy Connors, who is older than farming.

Things such as tennis now belongs to folks for whom English is a second language, not counting the Australians who require subtitles.

Things such as John McEnroe is going to have to succeed himself or the whole game is going straight to Sweden in a blender.

Things such as the U.S. hasn`t won the Davis Cup since 1982.

Those kind of things.

Thank goodness for Volvo Tennis, not to be confused with Volvo Turbo or Volkswagen Golf. Volvo Tennis Slash Chicago, to be accurate.

The answer was so simple. Wait until all those foreigners are back home playing each other for Mr. Davis` Cup and load up the field with every American who has refused to lead the next generation of U.S players. Of the 32 entries, 27 did not need a passport.

The fact that Connors, at 35, was the top seed defines the future of American tennis. The future looks a lot like 1978.

There was Mayotte himself, 27, a decent man, who won this same tournament a year ago. He is the victim of that most indefensible of ailments, an unrealized potential. Mayotte`s moment of succession was lost in five sets to Boris Becker, three years ago at Wimbledon.

Annacone was an heir, a boy wonder now 25, settled and married and still looking for a serve. Ranked 50th in the world, Annacone will always have Brisbane, one of his two professional wins.

``I`m not in the top 5 in the world making $10 million,`` he confessed, which is why he wore himself out playing doubles.

Scott Davis and Brad Gilbert were semifinalists. Gilbert is ranked 10th in the world, more likely a ceiling than a ladder. Davis, now ranked 66th, was once a real hope, as were Jimmy Arias and Aaron Krickstein.

Arias and Krickstein were both top 10 players as teenagers. They are now in their 20s, in age not rankings. In rankings they are in the second 50.

America`s next great threat was not in Chicago. He was in Peru. He is 17- year-old Andre Agassi, who spent the weekend winning a Davis Cup match himself. Agassi is ranked one slot higher than McEnroe at No. 15 in the world. If Agassi does not flame out as have the others, he is still a few years from confirmation. The quickest fix for U.S. tennis is the installation of Ivan Lendl as a citizen.

Lendl is already, in temperament, income and residence, a shameless capitalist. His petition to become an American before the Olympics is being pushed by Connecticut politicians.

Lendl`s wish to be an Olympian for the United States caused McEnroe to scoff that he would not be a member of the team, not that anyone has asked.

The tennis failures of the present generation of Americans come with alibis. The Europeans are hungrier. Americans are softer. Training is inadequate. Coaches are inferior.

Or, the most common one, these things run in cycles and it is someone else`s turn for a while.

The same is true among the women as among the men. After Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert, a naturalized and a native American,

respectively, tottering toward pensions, the quality drops into the freckled backhands of teenagers.

The U.S. does not need to lead the world in tennis any more than it needs to lead the world in ice cream flavors, but something seems wrong if it doesn`t.

All we can say for sure is that for one week in Chicago it was nice to see Americans waxing each other instead of being pushed around by the rest of the world.

Or, as tournament director Henry Brehm announced in a flush of patriotism, ``People say American tennis isn`t what it used to be. I think this week proved it.``

Compliments don`t come easy.