TENNIS TEAMTENNIS AT FORUM : Connors Gets in His Shots, but Strings Fall to Capitals

Jimmy Connors put on a vintage display of both temper and tennis Thursday night in the Strings’ 28-24 TeamTennis loss to the Sacramento Capitals before an announced crowd of 2,412 at the Forum.

Temporarily abandoning his role as the game’s beloved and mellowed elder statesman, the 38-year old Connors turned back the clock, voicing strenuous disagreement over referee John Bramlett’s calls.

“Get the hell out of here,” Connors said after Bramlett called Connors’ shot out at game point of the second game of his singles set against Sacramento’s Kelly Jones.

Bramlett then issued Connors a unsportsmanlike conduct warning.

“You can fine me, you can suspend me, but you’ve got to be kidding,” was Connors’ reply.

Jones, playing with a taped right calf he injured colliding with the barrier behind the court on the set’s first point, won the opening three games, and held a 4-1 advantage before Connors took the next three games. Both players held serve to even the set, 5-5, and force a tiebreaker, which Connors won, 5-3.

The Strings (1-1) lost the next three sets. Jones and Robert Van’t Hof defeated Connors and John Lloyd, 6-4. Teri Whitlinger, playing singles in place of her injured twin sister, Tami, beat Robin White, 6-4.

Sacramento (1-1) clinched the victory when Whitlinger and Van’t Hof beat Lloyd and White, 6-4.

In the first set of the match, White and Mary Lou Daniels of the Strings defeated Whitlinger and Alysia May, 6-5 (5-2) in women’s doubles.