The Miami Herald from Miami, Florida • 57

Tuesday June 9 I9S7 The Miami Herald 3C tennis at baseline: mainly serve and sleep lim Martz Tlorida People in Sports Associated Press Ivan Lendl: Too mechanical PARIS Tennis is a game of eras usually defined by the players who dominate them The Four Musketeers and Suzanne Lenglen of France owned the 1920s and the English much of the 1930s Then came the Americans players like Don Budge and Jack Kramer and Maureen Connolly followed by the Aussies Lew Hoad Ken Rosewall Rod Laver Roy Emerson John Newcombe Margaret Court and Evonne Goolagong to name a few For the most part the 1970s belonged to the Americans once again Arthur Ashe and Billie Jean King giving way to Jimmy Connors John McEnroe and Chris Evert One might say that Bjorn Borg was the interloper during those years but it would be far more accurate to see Borg for what he was the progenitor to the current era the one that is strangling tennis Yes strangling it Right now only Boris Becker stands between the game and utter total boredom Tennis is a European game today dominated by Europeans who have copied conservative topspinning style of play If main challengers for supremacy in the 1970s had been Ivan Lendl and Mats Wilan-der rather than Connors and McEnroe the game might have died right then As it is tennis entered the 1980s in such robust health that it may survive the current era in spite of itself The French Open which ended Sunday with Lendl beating Wilander in a final that should be placed in a time capsule to show future generations what not to do was rescued only by the women tennis is approaching the end of a truly golden era the one dominated by Evert and Martina Navratilova The two of Mecir totally unpredictable on the court is defiantly predictable and dull off it Without Becker these four would be the top four players in the game Not one has the kind of personality on or off the court that breathes life into the game The true characters: McEnroe Connors and the two Frenchmen Yannick Noah and Henri Leconte are for various reasons at least one rung below these four right now The last time one of them won a Grand Slam was when McEnroe won the US Open almost three years ago think for a moment that the European domination of the game is going to end any time soon or that an American comeback is imminent The highest-ranked Americans right now are Connors 34 at No 7 McEnroe 28 at No 8 and Tim Mayotte 27 at No 12 more Since McEnroe reached the Open final there have been six Grand Slam tournaments Twenty-one of 24 semifinalists were Europeans the three exceptions being Johan Kriek at the French and Australians Pat Cash and Wally Masur at the Australian None won a title and Cash was the only finalist The only non-European on the horizon right now who appears to have the potential to crack the top five in the next couple of years (barring a McEnroe comeback) is the hot-tempered Cash All of which brings us to Becker On the broad shoulders of the West German teen-ager "Still I am not yet he often points out rests the future of tennis As Bud Collins of NBC put it so eloquently Becker plays The Game He attacks he hits different shots He dives for balls He exults in victory and improbable winners He must become the man to John Feinstein Washington Post them have been superb competitors charismatic individuals and outstanding examples for the younger players When they turn control of the game over to teen-agers Steffi Graf Gabriela Sabatini and middle-aged heirs Hana Mandlikova and Pam Shriv-er they will leave it in good health and good hands Navratilova-Graf final was a joy to watch It was full of aggressive attacking tennis superb shot-making and at the end the kind of sportsmanship that exists only in an ideal world tennis should be so lucky Lendl has grown from a superb talent who often choked or gave up in the clutch into a true champion His shot-making in the fourth-set tiebreaker under extreme pressure because of the rain and belated spurt was easily the highlight of a dreary match But Lendl brings no spark to the game He is as mechanical in his play as McEnroe was graceful He is as conservative as Connors was tenacious When Joakim Nystrom played moonball with Lendl the champion played moonball He won the match but it was a sorry sight to see His main challengers at the top right now putting Becker aside for a moment are people like Wilander Stefan Edberg and Mil-oslav Mecir Each in his own way is an artiste Wilander has become a less one-dimensional player of late but still reverts to boring tennis under pressure Edberg plays serve-and-volley but has yet to prove he can compete under pressure outside of Australia And mount the challenge to Lendl If it is Mecir there will be many more scenes like the one Friday at Stade Roland Garros: the stands half-empty during a Grand Slam semifinal because the fans needed a break from the humdrum The same is true of Wilander or even Edberg playing style aside Becker is fun to watch fun to listen to and capable of the kind of brilliance on the tennis court that Lendl for all his fundamental soundness simply will not produce Take Becker out of tennis right now and what would we have to look forward to at Wimbledon a Lendl-Edberg final? The English would queue up to get out of that one The state of the game was perhaps bpst summed up during an interminable Lendl-Wilander rally on Sunday As he watched the ball go back and forth a member of the English press murmured quietly back John McEnroe ail is forgiven" In the world of men's tennis truer words have rarely been spoken Have skis will travel maybe to Olympics liiiv're thinking snow in South Florida Bud Albert of Kendall and Hayley Wolff of North Miami 1 1 have been ruined to the 1987-88 US Freestyle Ski Team have a yood thame to make the US squad for the 1988 'A iit iiipn in Calgary Alberta til ibi 1 i nien and women picked for the team the i' iv pi on' who live outside the snow belt or California And i iht haven't found hidden snow-covered mountains in South I hireli mi vhu to train A 1 i it who moved to Kendall last fall from New York atii nds the Univirsity of Vermont And heading for France to ojih af train at ski camps in July Wolff 24 attends the I riv of Penns Kama and lives part-time in New York "I I at board lift weights and run while in says i a rookie and second-youngest member of the US freestyle am la in ar- trying to help the team raise funds for Olympic i'i i "I he US has the strongest says Wolff lif Mur ah it also the poorest We get the least funding But a win the most medals of any country at the op pas A- fuse a lot of good People et cetera li wasn't as bad as it looked in print says former uirsii' of Mami All-American reliever Rick Raether in regard to hi one-night stand with the Texas Rangers last Thursday I a- ave up a two-run double and three-run homer to the first two ojturs he fated against Class AAA Oklahoma City in an hr a mi then allowed two more hits in 1 innings riabv didn't hit the ball that says Raether now back wen tin hariotte Rangers of the Class A Florida State League 1 he frst guy broke his bat and dumped one barely over the third ha-nun The next guy hit a 1-2 slider that barely cleared the Then I settled down It was fun and exciting" Raether is 2-1 with 1 2 saves and a 1 02 earned-run average in the FSL Asked if the -tint at Oklahoma City affected his advancement Raether said It looks like what move they make will depend on what thiv do with the guy ahead of me Gary Mtelky at Tulsa He's -nrg someone savs I talk to you Coach five hi ads could turn at the Bowden Quarterback-Receiver Academy in ('Koa Ha Bobby Bowden Florida State football coach is loathing at the academy this month along with his sons Terry Tommy Jeff and Steve and son-in-law Jack Hines "When I first talkid with dad and my brothers everyone was savs Tern head coach at Samford University in R'rr ogham Ala "We're going to do something special and all going to have some former UM outfielder Tony Brewer and former Dade-North frst baseman Pat Putnam are the second- and third-leading American hitters in the Japanese Pacific League Brewer is batting with 14 homers for the Nippon Ham Fighters and teammate Putnam is hitting 318 with 10 homers Another Dade-North product Warren Cromartie is hitting 272 with the Yomiuri Giants in the Central League And Tom Forrester a first ba-man-designated hitter with Hawaii of the Class AAA Pacific Coast League hit a home run off the scoreboard in Vancouver the first time in eight years that has been done forrester who was with the parent Chicago White Sox in spring training will become Dade-North Coach Demie 24th big-le3guer if the White Sox call him up Fred Stoile the Australian tennis star who is tennis director at Turnberry Isle in North Miami Beach is used to interviewing players as a commentator for ESPN But 12-year-old Spencer Shelfer of Miami reversed the roles and interviewed Stoile for the nationally syndicated television show Bir The program features children interviewing celebrity guests Shelfer who is ranked in the top five nationally in the girls' 12-and-under division will appear in the segment Sept 28 A scholarship fund is being established at Southern University in Baton Rouge La in the name of Donna Davenport former fort Lauderdale Dillard High and Southern track and basketball standout who died in a car crash in Dade County last September Send contributions to the Southern University Alumni Federation Box 9746 Baton Rouge La 70813 Davenport was training for the 1988 Olympics at the time of the accident Matthew Berkman a Miami Beach High graduate who was an Ail-American swimmer the past two years at Broward Community College has signed a scholarship with Maryland Florida People Trivia Corner Question- What does Stanford winner of the College World Series Sunday nht have in common with the University of Miami baseball program? (Si6I AHuaaaa jsotu 01) biujojito uaaqjnos pus (S8 pub gcGifiuirijM 3je saaqio am -sapeaap aaaqj jsed atp ut juautEuano aqj uim o) lootps ajBAtjd pjtqj aqj Ajuo si pjojuets uavtsuy Schultz aims to improve image Sports Roundup From Herald Wire Services Richard Schultz athletic director at the University of Virginia says he will maintain a more public profile than his predecessor when he takes over as executive director of the NCAA Schultz 58 received a five-year contract Monday to succeed Walter Byers Schultz will join the NCAA staff no later than Sept 1 and succeed Byers no later than Aug 31 1988 condition of the NCAA is Schultz said "But the NCAA is just like all of intercollegiate athletics today in that it has perception problems Sometimes the perception becomes more important and larger than the issues themselves "The common perception of most people is that the NCAA is some bureaucratic organization in Kansas City that makes controversial decisions when the NCAA is us the individual institutions The individual institutions have to play a larger role in solving the problems of intercollegiate Schultz also promised to take a hard-line stand on academic integrity achievement and integrity in athletics go hand in he said "I would hope we can see some improvement in that Brian Mullen 25 and the Winnipeg lOth-round pick in Saturday's draft in exchange for New fifth-round pick in 1988 and third-round pick in 1989 Mullen had 19 goals and 32 assists last season Philadelphia goaltender Ron Hextall 23 picked up his prizes a 1987 Volvo 740 Turbo and a trophy in New York for winning the Sport Magazine MVP award Losing the Stanley Cup to Edmonton like getting hit by a Hextall said was the biggest disappointment of my Other sports Dale Douglass shot a two-under-par 70 to win the $30000 Bud Grant Senior Golf Classic at Rolling Green Country Club in Hamel Minn Jim Feree (71) finished second and former NFL quarterback John Brodie (72) was third Tartan Farm one of the top thoroughbred breeding farms with headquarters in Ocala Fla and Lexington Ky will liquidate most of its holdings because of a shift in family investment priorities Chairman James Binger said Tartan will disburse its yearlings broodmares weanlings and shares in all its stallions except Fappiano at a public auction in the fall Fappiano Legislatively in the NCAA the stage has been set for that Most loopholes have been closed in academic progress legislation and Proposition 48 I think the stage is set to see a major improvement in academic achievement of Boxing Gert Bo Jacobsen (22-0) retained the European lightweight title by stopping Alain Simoes (20-2) in the eighth round in Merignac France Former World Boxing Association junior lightweight champion Samuel Serrano 34 was sentenced to 15 years in jail in San Juan Puerto Rico and fined $100000 in connection with his conviction on drug charges He pleaded guilty in March to possession of 750 grams of cocaine with the intent to distribute as part of a plea bargaining agreement with federal prosecutors Hockey The New Yotk Rangers acquired left wing Yankees sign Dade-North player AVOID TRANSMISSION PROBLEMS TRANSMISSION TUNE-UP EMISSION tlltf tv''w wW7 rwPsmik: MULTI-POINT OPEN TRANSMISSION MON-SAT 7:30 TUNE-UP AM-6 PM INCLUDES new Fluid clean sump clean screen rwu REPLACE GASKET ADJUST BANOS LINKAGE 9f ROAD TEST CHECK FOR LEAKS CHECK U-JOINTS call wow FOfi appointment WE HONOS extended new and used car warranties iir FREE TOWING WITH INTESNAL EEPAIES SERVING SO FLORIDA OVER 30 YEARS Tom Popplewell a sixth-round choice in last major-league draft signed with the New York Yankees and will report to Oneonta of the Class A New York-Penn League a school spokesman said Monday Popplewell 6-3 and 230 pounds was a pitcher and designated hitter for the Falcons He posted a 4-3 record and 348 ERA last season and batted 250 Dade-South shortstop Dean De-cillis also a sixth-round choice signed with the Detroit Tigers Decillis batted 311 and was an All-Southern Conference selection last season Colleges i Tom Hearn of the University of Miami was one of 29 players named to the Golf Coaches Association of NCAA Division I Academic All-American team Hearn is one of 10 repeaters joining David Duffy of Army Dennis Harrington of Ohio State Terry Hertzog of Penn State Kevin Kozlowski of Ball State Bertil Marje of Pan American Houston Martin of Rice Eric Rebmann of Tennessee Art Roberson of North Carolina State and Grant Waite of Oklahoma TU OssS Sal I HIMHW Hill WUMBf IIIHMIIiWW gUTIl'Mrftilir TW Lakers vs Celtics 9 pm Chs 4 and 34 Where Boston Garden Announcers Dick Stockton and Tom Hemsohn What to watch After two lopsided victories by Los Angeles to open the best-of-seven NBA finals Boston won 109-103 Sunday in the Garden with the help of nine rebounds by reserve Greg Kite James Worthy the fast-break triggerman was held to 13 points in Game 3 but is still averaging 23 a game for the series Larry Bird (283-point average) leads the Celtics Pompano Deerfield 3 BUs of Cypress Creek 1215 So Dixie Hwy 781-0500 Hollywood Hallandale 201 State Rd 7(441) 981-0605 Coral Springs Margate 2936 State Rd 7 (441) 972-7451 fort Lauderdale 2501 Broward Blvd 792-9290 OUPO Spoils Today Television See Herald TV book or daily TV page for complete listings 9 pm CcD NBA finals LA Lakers at Boston Cable television 8:48 am Howard Cosell on Sports WNWS (790) 6 pm Sports talk WIOD (610) 7:30 pm Baseball Toronto at NY Yankees WSBR (740 Boca) 9 pm NBA finals LA Lakers at Boston WIOD (610) 10 pm Sports Exchange WQAM (560) South Florida events Florida State League baseball Miami vs Lakeland Bobby Maduro Miami Stadium 2301 NW 10th Ave 7:30 pm Fort Lauderdale vs Winter Haven Fort Lauderdale Stadium 5301 NW 12th Ave 7 pm West Palm Beach vs Osceola West Palm Municipal Stadium Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard and Congress Avenue 7:30 pm Pari-mutuels Biscayne Dog Track 320 NW 115th St 12:30 and 7:45 pm Dania Jai-Alai 301 Dania Beach Blvd 7: 1 5 pm Miami Jai-Alai 3500 NW 37th Ave 7:15 pm US Basketball League Miami vs Staten Island Dade-South 11011 SW 104th St 7:30 pm Dade County Sludio 183 (N Miami) Jame Knight Clr Lea Violins VIP Sunblazer Arena at Copacabana VIP (South Campus Fl U) Intercontinental Hotel Coconut Grove Exhibition Forge VIP (Miami Beach) Center (Dinner Key) VIP Milander Hall (Hialeah) a G-Wizz VIP a Redieton Plaza Hotel VIP (N Miami Beach) HoPywood a Diplomat Hotel Broward County a Sunrise Musical Theater a Marriott Marina Hotel (17 St CiuM)r Pizzazz a FI Atlantic University For pro sports results call 376-3505 in Dade 462-2722 in Broward.