Lloyd draws the short straw

Press, 19 June 1986, Page 38

Lloyd draws the short straw

NZPA-Reuter London Chris Evert Lloyd can be excused for asking herself today: “What have I done to deserve this draw?” The 31-year-old American may well be feeling shell-shocked after getting the short straw when the draw was made yesterday for the two-week Wimbledon Tennis Championships starting on Monday. Fresh from winning the French Open title for a record seventh time this month, when she beat Martina Navratilova in the final for the second successive year, Lloyd may have felt extremely confident about Wimbledon. That is, until she saw

her draw. If she is to take her projected place in the women’s final against the defending champion, Navratilova, Lloyd will have to negotiate a minefield of explosive serve-and-volley exponents eager to claim her scalp. The first obstacle is Mary Joe Fernandez, the 14-year-old American who was one of the sensations at the French Open, where she reached the last eight unseeded. Lloyd’s experience should certainly carry her through, but it will be a difficult psychological test for the three-times Wimbledon champion. Two Americans, Pam Casale and Kathy Horvath, who have both scored notable triumphs in their time, should op-

pose her in the next two rounds before Lloyd arrives at a fourth-round encounter with another compatriot, Kathy Jordan, the sixteenth seed. It was Jordan who in the third round in 1983 dealt Lloyd her worst Wimbledon defeat, 6-1, 76, and she also beat Lloyd once in 1984 and once in 1985. If Lloyd survives that far, she is scheduled to clash with the big Czechoslovak, Helena , Sukova, the seventh seed who has beaten Navratilova and who almost did so again at the French Open this month. The third-seeded Hana Mandlikova, of Czechoslovakia, if she gets past the fifth-seed, Pam Shriber (U.S.), should con-

front Lloyd in the semifinals, the same stage at which she beat the American on the way to the U.S. Open title last year. If Lloyd clears all those hurdles, she should feel supremely confident to take on Navratilova, as expected, in the final. While Lloyd may have to struggle, the men’s titleholder, Boris Becker, should be able to ease through the opening rounds. The West German, who at 17 and unseeded became Wimbledon’s youngest .men’s champion last year, starts against an Argentine, Eduardo Bengoechea, who has no form on grass. Two Americans, j Tom

Gullikson and Bob Schultz, battle to face Becker in round two with Paul McNamee, of Australia, or the Briton, John Lloyd, to provide the third round opposition. Mikael Pernfors, of Sweden, the unseeded French finalist who has no reputation on grass, is Becker’s likely fourthround rival, and if Pernfors has adapted well enough to the surface to get that far, he will be dangerous. Then it should be the 20-year-old Swede, Stefan Edberg, who won the Australian Open title on grass last year. Victory there would put Becker into the semi-finals, where he is seeded to play the secondseed, Mats Wilander, of Sweden.