Young players barred

Press, 13 July 1985, Page 80

Young players barred

NZPA-AP Barcelona Child prodigies will be barred from the international tennis circuit after complaints that talented players are being pushed too far too soon, to the detriment of their personal development. The International Tennis Federation has forbidden players under the age of 14 to compete in any professional tournament and new rules will severely restrict participation by youngsters under 16. Teen-agers who are already regulars on the international scene, such as Argentina’s Gabriela Saba-

tini, aged 15, will be exempt from the restrictions, which come into force on January 1 next year. The federation, meeting in Barcelona, also scrapped all international tournamments for children under 12. Delegates decided that all players, whatever their age or status, should be eligible for the Olympic tennis tournament, though the International Olympic Committee has yet to agree. Meanwhile, Boris Becker, the 17-year-old West German who became the youngest player ever to win the men’s singles at Wimbledon, has withdrawn from the

$400,000 Washington tennis classic because of an ankle injury. Becker has been on holiday in Monaco, where a doctor told him to stay off his swollen left ankle for five to 10 days, said Mr Henry Brehm, the director of the Washington tournament. Becker’s father, KarlHeinz Becker, said the leg is the same one that was operated on a year ago and it became very swollen after Wimbledon.

The clay-court tournament next week was supposed to be the first United States appearance for Becker.