TENNIS / MARYANN HUDSON : Laver’s Cup Is Stuff of Legends

They were once called the Geritol Squad, so relatively old were the members of the Australian Davis Cup team that beat the United States in 1973. Rod Laver was 35, Ken Rosewall 39, and John Newcombe, the youngest, was 29.

Collectively, “Captain (Neale) Fraser’s Antique Show”--another name given to that Australian team--shut out Stan Smith, Tom Gorman and Erik van Dillen, 5-0, to end the United States’ five-year dominance and tie the nations at 23 cups each.

At 53, Laver has decided that the rivalry should continue. But at this age, the players’ former greatness lends itself to a more gracious title. They are simply called legends.

Next weekend at the La Quinta hotel, Laver, Rosewall, Roy Emerson and Owen Davidson will play a Davis Cup type of format against Gorman, Roscoe Tanner, Marty Riessen and Jackie Cooper, La Quinta’s club professional.

“I wanted to do something for the Merlin Foundation, which is trying to find a cure and make people aware of melanoma,” Laver said. “So, I thought, why not four Australians and four Americans in an ongoing annual event, The Rod Laver’s Legends Cup?”

Davis Cup finals between the United States and Australia dominated the 1950s: Australia beat the United States in 1950-53, the United States won in 1954, then relinquished the Cup again to Australia in 1955-57.

Laver played on many Davis Cup teams, including Australia’s 1958 loss to the United States. “It used to be that the defending champion just sat on the step and waited for the challenger to work its way up,” Laver said. “So we challenged the U.S. in 1959 and won at Forest Hills, then held the Cup through 1962. Then I turned professional and couldn’t play in the Davis Cup anymore.

“By 1973, the Davis Cup had opened up to professionals, and Fraser collected all of us and put a team together.”

Laver’s teammates also included Geoff Masters, Mal Anderson and Colin Dibley. Other Americans included Marty Riessen, Dick Stockton, captain Dennis Ralston and Harold Solomon. Lore has it that the Americans were paid $15,000 each for the season, which included $8,000 each for the final. The Australians were paid $1,000 for each match they played in and about $3,000 for the final.

Laver, who won the Grand Slam twice, says he has never really left tennis. He plays on the Assn. of Tennis Professionals Senior Tour, as well as in other tournaments, and works with corporations in public relations.

He was playing in a tournament in South Carolina this week when the two earthquakes were centered in Desert Hot Springs. He and his wife, Mary, live in nearby Rancho Mirage.

“I called home and said, ‘Is anything still standing?’ And Mary said she had run out of the house and onto the golf course when the last one hit.”

Laver started a legends tour in 1979 that included eight players 35 and over “who didn’t want to fight the younger kids,” he said. “Then, when we got to be 45 and they wanted to be included, we changed the tour into the grand master’s tour. We said, ‘You are never going to catch up!’ ”

Although the ATP senior tour is similar in theory to golf’s senior tour, Laver doesn’t think it will have the same broad appeal. The relatively new tour includes two divisions, 35 and over and 45 and over.

“We are not going to get as big as the golf tour,” Laver said. “We need the men’s regular tour to link in with, to be part of it. At (a recent tournament) we played after the women’s match and before the men’s began, and that worked well. But we need to stay linked to the regular tour.”

One who could help the tour is Bjorn Borg, who, at 35, is trying to make it on the regular tour. Borg has not been able to rekindle his game since he came back a year ago at Monte Carlo. In the last month, he did not made it past the first round in two tournaments he has played.

“Borg is unfortunately trying to make it on the regular tour, and you can’t catch up after eight years off,” Laver said. “It’s not wrong that he is doing it, but he should play on the senior tour. He is a great guy and a great player and he says that he enjoys playing now, but it is more enjoyable when your play is compatible. I want him to join us. It would be great for the tour.”

The USC men’s tennis team won the Pacific 10 Conference title Wednesday with a victory at Arizona State and ended the season with a 19-2 record, 9-1 in conference. The Trojans’ conference loss was to UCLA, and the nonconference loss to Stanford in a pre-league game.

Stanford is still top-ranked in the nation, followed by Georgia, Kentucky and USC. But that ranking might change before the Trojans travel to Athens, Ga., to begin defense of their NCAA title on May 15.

This weekend’s Pac-10 tournament at Ojai will determine the conference singles and doubles champion. But USC’s top player, sophomore Brian MacPhie, chose not to participate to prepare for final examinations. MacPhie is ranked fifth in the nation.

Of note this year is USC freshman Wayne Black of Zimbabwe, the younger brother of former Trojan All-American Byron Black.

Wayne Black completed the dual-match season with a 22-0 record, including a straight-set victory against Stanford’s No. 2 player, Michael Flanagan.

Tennis Notes

The top-ranked college player is David DiLucia a senior at Notre Dame. . . . Amanda Basica, 13, of Rolling Hills, beat Ania Biezynski, 15, of Thousand Oaks to win the Girls’ 16 title at the Easter Bowl Junior Championships in Miami. Anne Miller, 15, of Midland, Mich., won the Girls’ 18 title by defeating Nicole London, 16, of Rolling Hills. . . . Monica Seles is the chairperson of the World Tennis Assn. Special Olympics committee. Included in her duties will be appearances at tennis clinics and fund-raising events. . . . The national championship finals of the Phoenix Challenge will be held Sunday at Marriott’s Desert Springs Resort in Palm Desert. In conjunction with the event, the First World Championship finals, featuring players from Claremont and San Diego competing against Australians, will be held today at Marriott’s Rancho Las Palmas Resort in Rancho Mirage.