Masters Tennis Tournament : This Season’s Field Is a Site for Sore Feet

NEW YORK —  Whoever wins the $750,000 Nabisco Masters, which begins here tonight at Madison Square Garden, the margin of victory is likely to be two feet.

Feet--sore ones--aching dogs, the things with toes that you stand on, are dominating the news at the Masters. Mats Wilander, the No. 1 player in the world, is here to take a shot at $1.15 million, which will be his if he wins all his matches, and thus drains the season bonus pool of $800,000.

But Wilander has some very sore feet. They were so bad that Wilander missed last week’s tournament, the Belgian Indoor Championships, because his doctor forbade him to go outdoors.

Wilander’s doctor told him to rest, but since there is so much cash available, and because this is the men’s season-ending event, Wilander probably thought he could rest before next season, which actually begins in 2 weeks.

Boris Becker is here, too. Becker’s feet are also in poor shape and have hurt so much that his manager, Ion Tiriac, said he shouldn’t have played in the U.S. Open last summer, when he lost in straight sets in the second round to Darren Cahill.

Jimmy Connors isn’t here. He wanted to be but--you guessed it--his feet hurt. Surgery is planned.

Stefan Edberg’s knee is kind of sore--his feet are fine--but the Wimbledon champion will play here. Ivan Lendl, who had arthroscopic shoulder surgery about 2 months ago, is back on the court, too.

Andre Agassi is here with his new No. 3 ranking, but he is the only one of the top five--Wilander, Lendl, Becker and Edberg are the others--without some kind of physical problem.

“We’re blessed by the fact that these guys think the Masters is still important, so they want to play,” tournament director Gene Scott said.

Besides Connors, the only other player who pulled out because of injury was Sweden’s Kent Carlsson, who told Scott that a sore knee prevented him from playing on anything but clay courts. Although Scott liked its originality, he was nevertheless forced to grade down Carlsson’s excuse.

“That is one of the most unique medical excuses in history,” Scott said. “It’s almost comic. It’s just nonsense. Why not say: ‘I’ll hit any shot except to my backhand?’ A guy is either in the game or out of the game.”

The game here is sort of unusual, something like a stakes match. The 8-player field is divided into two groups of four. Each player has 3 round-robin matches and those with the best records advance to the semifinals. Tiebreakers are the percentage of sets won.

Each player gets $15,000 just for reaching the Masters. After that, he must win to get paid. Round-robin victories are worth $30,000 each. A semifinal victory is worth $60,000 and winning the final pays $150,000.

There have been some dramatic changes in the rankings since the last Masters, which Lendl won in protecting his top ranking.

“Now, 9 months later, he’s on his way south,” Scott said. “Wilander won 3 of the 4 Grand Slams. And Agassi went from 25 to 3 (in the rankings).”

Lendl, who lost his No. 1 ranking to Wilander at the U.S. Open, played in 2 exhibition tournaments in his comeback after surgery.

“He hasn’t played well since losing the U.S. Open, which was probably pretty crushing, then he has shoulder surgery,” Scott said. “He gets beaten in a couple of exhibitions. No, it doesn’t count, but somewhere it registers in his subconscious that he lost. So I’d say psychologically that he’s a little frail.”