TENNIS : You Have to Be Willing to Do the Dirty Work to Win in Paris

PARIS — Who will be Dirtball’s new king and queen? On the eve of the French Open, there is plenty of room for pretenders to the throne. The only thing for sure is that the winners will exhibit strong personality traits.

Few in recent years have been tougher than Michael Chang, who won here in 1989 as a 17-year-old. “You have to be mentally tough,” Chang says. “(Clay) is not a type of surface you can win seven matches straight by just blasting the ball all over the place. It’s a thinking man’s game.”

Thinking women also may apply. And as for the men’s singles field, if it were any more wide open, they would seed the first 100 players instead of only 16. Chang is probably the top U.S. player coming in, even though he has played only one clay-court tournament in preparation.

Andre Agassi? He lost his first match in each of his last two tournaments. Jim Courier? He lost his opening match at Hamburg and in the third round of the Italian Open. That leaves Chang, who was upset by Jaime Yzaga in the quarterfinals of a clay-court event at Charlotte, N.C., then spent the next week practicing Dirtball on red clay courts in Irvine.

Chang hopes he will be ready but points out that no one else is dusting off a place on the mantel for the French Open trophy.

“There hasn’t exactly been anyone who has established his superiority on the clay-court circuit,” he says. “I don’t know if I can win it, but I’m going to do the best I can.”

Here is a list, entirely subjective, of the other candidates:

MEN

1. Boris Becker--He withdrew from the Italian Open because of a bad back but seems on the verge of being able to make his first clay-court title a big one. In any event, Becker leads the tour in dismissing employees. Becker will enter the French Open with his third coach in three months--Czechoslovakian Tomas Smid, who replaced German Niki Pilic last week, who replaced Australian Bob Brett in February.

A French wire service quoted Pilic as saying he’d had enough of Becker: “ . . . Things can’t go on like this. Enough is enough. I really can’t handle any more--I’m washed out and exhausted.”

Although it was presumed that Pilic was overextended as coach of the German national team, Becker and Pilic reportedly had a clash of personalities as well as different attitudes about training, with Pilic more interested in discipline than Becker.

2. Sergi Bruguera--He beat Becker on clay in Barcelona and Monte Carlo but also lost to Javier Sanchez and Mark Koevermans on clay the next two weeks. One of the game’s rising clay-court stars, the 6-foot-1 Spaniard, who weighs 160 pounds, is a devoted Laker fan whose favorite athlete is, yes, Magic Johnson. Remember, on clay it’s Slowtime, not Showtime.

3. Stefan Edberg--Wait a minute. A second serve-and-volley player among the top contenders? On clay? Actually clay is only Edberg’s second-worst surface, after quicksand. In any event, he can’t be any worse here than he was last year when he got bounced in the first round.

Remember, Edberg reached the French Open final in 1989, only to lose to Chang. At least Edberg must be rested. His French Open preparation included only two clay-court events covering four matches, and he hasn’t played in two weeks.

4. Emilio Sanchez--Who can forget how the ebullient Sanchez reacted as a 21-year-old when he lost to Becker in the final at Indian Wells, grabbing actress Linda Evans as she gave him his runner-up check and planting a big kiss on her lips? What would he do if he wins here--scale the Eiffel Tower with Isabelle Adjani on his back and marry her on the spot?

The rest of the field is sort of open, although there are several who could win, among them Ivan Lendl, Karel Novacek, Guy Forget or possibly someone like Michael Stich, Goran Prpic, Richard Fromberg or Cristiano Caratti.

Who has no chance? Pencil in defending champion Andres Gomez, who pulled out last week, citing an injury. It was probably just as well, because Gomez’s record is 3-10, which means that in seven of 10 tournaments this year, he failed to win a match.

After losing in the first round at Estoril, Portugal, Gomez was asked if he planned to visit the religious shrine at Fatima. He replied: “The way I’m playing, I should probably stay there for a month.”

WOMEN

1. Gabriela Sabatini--She lost her first match of the year on clay, a third-round upset by Anke Huber in Berlin, so Sabatini was probably too tired. She has either played too many matches--38 already this year--or she stayed up too late in Rome when she celebrated her Italian Open victory at a dance club.

There are only three, maybe four players who have a chance, and Sabatini’s prospects look best.

2. Steffi Graf--Tennis is a strange game when you are said to be making a comeback at 21 after falling all the way to No. 2 in the rankings. Graf appears stronger at this stage than she did a year ago, but it is certain that players are going to be attacking her slice backhand as usual to see if she can still, well, cut it.

3. Monica Seles--Did she lose her strength when she got her hair cut? The defending champion is only the third choice to win here, partly because she has been having problems beating either Sabatini or Graf recently.

Seles won only five games and lost to Sabatini in the Italian Open final in 1 hour 21 minutes, which will be about the length of the first set of her matches at Roland Garros, where the only thing slower than the clay surface is the service at the restaurants.

4. Arantxa Sanchez Vicario--This may be a little bit of a reach, especially in light of how she defended her 1989 French Open title last year, setting a record for earliest exit of a defending champion by losing in the second round. But Sanchez Vicario rebounded quickly in the postmatch news conference and scored points among the media with her slightly askew philosophical commentary: “What you can do?”

Some believe that 15-year-old Jennifer Capriati has a shot, but against the top four in the rankings, she is 0-11, so Capriati would probably settle for something less. “I’d just like to beat someone ahead of me,” she says.

Borg update: As it turns out, Bjorn Borg will turn 35 during the French Open but not while he’s playing in it.

When Borg announced that he had decided not to resume his comeback in Paris but still is considering accepting a wild card at Wimbledon late next month, he also revealed that he has a new coach--Italian Adriano Panatta. Borg has been training with Panatta and Antonio Dal Monte of the Italian Sport Science Institute in Rome for four hours a day.

The Swede told the media at the Italian Open that he was unclear about the next step in his return to tennis. He was accompanied by his wife, Italian singer Loredana Berte, who swallowed an overdose of pills in an apparent suicide attempt in Milan while Borg was in Monte Carlo losing the first match of his comeback attempt.

A fashion note: At the news conference, Berte wore an oversized straw hat covered with plastic flowers. She also held a knapsack in the shape of a stuffed teddy bear.

Little Monica? The latest yardstick measurement of the 17-year-old Seles finds her at 5-10, or six inches taller than she was when she played in her first French Open two years ago.

Sabatini schedule: The winners of the last two Grand Slam tournaments, Sabatini and Seles, have entered the Virginia Slims of Los Angeles, once again a hardcourt warm-up for the U.S. Open, at Manhattan Country Club in Manhattan Beach Aug. 12-18.

U.S. Open champion Sabatini and Australian Open champion Seles join Sanchez Vicario, Mary Joe Fernandez and Zina Garrison in the $350,000 event, which Martina Navratilova is skipping.

Last year, Sabatini was upset in the early rounds by Stephanie Rehe, then swept through the U.S. Open to her first Grand Slam championship. Seles won the next Grand Slam title with a victory over Jana Novotna in Melbourne.

Seles is the defending champion in the event that offers $70,000 to the winner. She has also entered the $225,000 Mazda tournament at La Costa July 29-Aug. 4.

John & Jimmy: Better make that Jimmy and John, as in Connors and Lloyd, who will anchor the Strings in the monthlong TeamTennis season. Lloyd, 36, is the coach, and Connors, 37, is the star player deserving of the top billing in what promises to be an entertaining partnership.

“At least, I’m not the oldest guy in TeamTennis now,” Lloyd said. “They won’t announce that every bloody time I walk on the court.”

Lloyd said it will be important for Connors to start quickly, because the singles and the men’s doubles with Lloyd are each only one set. That’s one change, but Lloyd also said Connors must get used to 20 seconds between points, not 30 seconds.

Lloyd, who coaches Catarina Lindqvist, said coaching someone such as Connors is just a little different. “What do you say to Jimmy Connors?” Lloyd said. “Your forehand isn’t working? I’m just basically going to listen to what he has to say. Who knows? We might get into it, in the heat of the moment, but I’m just going to play a passive role, just be as calm as I can and see how things go.”

Tennis Notes

The Volvo/Los Angeles tournament has designated the Starlight Foundation as its official charity. The Starlight Foundation is a non-profit organization that grants the wishes of seriously ill children. Committed to play in the July 29-Aug. 4 event are Stefan Edberg, Ivan Lendl, Pete Sampras and Michael Chang. . . . Chino teen-agers Tony Lara, 16, and Jason Van Beek, 18, are among the top wheelchair tennis players selected by the National Foundation of Wheelchair Tennis to participate in the 11th U.S. Olympic Festival July 12-21 in Los Angeles.

Canyon Development, which signed a 10-year agreement with IMG to stage the Virginia Slims of Palm Springs at a new complex beginning in 1994, has decided not to build a tennis stadium on the chosen site after all. Canyon cited concern over traffic congestion and noise. The three-year-old event moved to Bono’s Racket Club in Palm Springs in March after two years at Hyatt Grand Champions in Indian Wells. According to IMG, there has been no decision on where the tournament will end up.

Tennis champions of the past and future will compete in the third annual Youth vs. Experience Team Challenge Monday at the Los Angeles Tennis Club, beginning at 10 a.m. A team a boys and girls junior champions, including 10-year-old sensation Venus Williams, will take on a team of past champions, age 55 to 85. Jack Kramer will serve as the team captain for the past champions. Others competing include former Wimbledon champion Bob Falkenburg and former U.S. No. 1 Whitney Reed, plus women Dodo Cheney and Louise Brough Clapp. Youth won the first competition, 13-7, and the Experience team won last year, 14-10. Admission is free to the event, which is sponsored by the Southern California Tennis Assn.

The SCTA is offering tennis instruction to youths 8 to 18 at clinics during the week of July 8. There is a $10 registration fee, but exceptions are offered in case of economic need and rackets are provided if necessary. Funded by the Amateur Athletic Foundation, the program is designed for youngsters from disadvantaged areas. Information: (213) 208-3838.