Pate Is All-England Marathon Man : He Wins His Second Rain-Delayed Match of the Week

WIMBLEDON, England —  Buy a ticket to Wimbledon and there’s a pretty good chance you’ll see David Pate play.

He played Monday. He played Tuesday. He played Thursday and Friday and he’s going to play today, too.

So far, Pate has spent more time on grass than a lawn mower. He finished up Thursday’s rain-interrupted, rain-delayed second-round match Friday, 23 hours after it had begun.

Pate defeated Tom Nijssen of the Netherlands, 6-4, 2-6, 1-6, 7-6 (9-7), 15-13, in a marathon match of four hours 13 minutes.

Pate, a 27-year-old Los Angeles native who played at Texas Christian and now lives in Las Vegas, fought off four match points while winning his second straight two-day match.

In the first round, rain forced Pate to finish Monday’s match with Paul Annacone Tuesday, another five-set encounter.

Pate shrugged. After all, what could he do?

“This is Wimbledon,” he said. “It rains all the time.”

Now, after playing 10 sets in two matches spread over four days, Pate takes to the court again today to face eighth-seeded Tim Mayotte.

When play was halted Thursday night, Pate trailed Nijssen, 0-2, in the fourth set. But he came back and withstood three match points in the set and another in the fifth.

At 11-11, there was another rain delay.

Pate, whose ranking has dropped from No. 17 to 47 to 147 in the last two years, is recovering from a muscle tear in his right shoulder last October, which is probably why he wasn’t happy about playing a 15-13 fifth set.

“It’s kind of like watching cricket or baseball,” he said. “The fans are just sitting there waiting for the big points to come. Other than that, it’s boring.”

Pate is actually lucky to be playing Wimbledon in this era, when only a fifth set is played without a tiebreaker. Until 1971, there were no tiebreakers at all, not in any set. The worst (best?) example was a first-round match in 1969, when Pancho Gonzalez defeated Charlie Pasarell, 22-24, 1-6, 16-14, 6-3, 11-9, in five hours 12 minutes.

With his ranking low and his shoulder affected by working so long, Pate will not be favored against Mayotte. But he said he has a chance.

“On grass courts, anything is possible,” he said.

Tennis Notes

Michael Chang, who beat Ronald Agenor of Haiti on clay in the French Open, beat him again Friday, 4-6, 6-2, 6-1, 7-5, this time on grass. Chang plays Michiel Schapers of the Netherlands in the third round, which is farther than many expected Chang to go. He said he could see why people thought that way. “That’s a very logical opinion,” he said. “Me being regarded as a baseliner, you tend to give the baseliners less of a chance on grass. It seems like when someone says that, it makes a person like me work harder to prove you guys wrong. Grass definitely favors a serve-and-volley player, but baseliners can still play on it. Look at Jimmy Connors. His ground strokes were better than (Boris) Becker’s first serve.”

Ivan Lendl, Becker and Stefan Edberg all advanced. The top-seeded Lendl defeated Tomas Carbonell of Spain, 7-6 (7-2), 6-3, 6-1, and will play Peter Lundgren of Sweden in the fourth round. Edberg defeated 18-year-old Australian Todd Woodbridge, 6-1, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (7-5) and Becker beat Jan Gunnarsson of Sweden, 7-5, 7-6 (7-1), 6-3. Edberg’s fourth-round opponent is Scott Davis of the U.S. Next for Becker is Aaron Krickstein of the U.S., who has already had a good tournament. Krickstein won his third-round match against Patrick Kuhnen of West Germany, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-2.

There were two upsets. Seventh-seeded Miloslav Mecir of Czechoslovakia lost to Slobodan Zivojiniovic of Yugoslavia, 6-7 (7-2), 6-1, 7-5, 6-3, and 12th-seeded Kevin Curren of South Africa was beaten by Leif Shiras of the U.S., 4-6, 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (8-6), 6-3. Curren held four match points in the fourth set. . . . John McEnroe’s third-round opponent is Jim Pugh of Palos Verdes, who won their last meeting in straight sets in a Wimbledon warm-up tournament at Wirral, England.