Manhattan Beach Tennis : Putting Injuries Behind Her, Bunge Advances

From April to June, the inflamed nerve in Bettina Bunge’s spine was so painful, she couldn’t sleep. But in her first-round match Monday morning at the Virginia Slims of Los Angeles, where she is seeded ninth, it was the play of qualifier Camille Benjamin that pained Bunge.

On a day when most of the top players showed up at Manhattan Country Club only to practice, and top-seeded Martina Navratilova spent the evening signing copies of her workout book at the Beverly Center, Bunge, the highest-ranked player in action, narrowly avoided an upset.

Benjamin, a 21-year-old left-hander from Bakersfield with an unorthodox combination of looping ground strokes and powerful passing shots, had Bunge on the ropes for nearly three hours before finally losing to the world’s 20th-ranked player, 6-2, 3-6, 7-5.

Bunge, a 24-year-old Monaco resident who enjoys surf and sand almost as much as pounding winners, was all but ready to head for the beach part of Manhattan when she missed an easy forehand volley that put Benjamin three points from the match at 4-5, love-15 in the third.

“I guess I relaxed at that point,” Bunge said. “In my mind, I went to the beach. I’d already planned that for after I lost.”

Benjamin’s lead at 5-4 was Bunge’s only lapse of the final set, though. After tying the score at 5-5, she broke Benjamin at love and held serve for the match.

Bunge’s next match will be against Barbara Gerken, a former UCLA player, Wednesday.

Eva Pfaff of West Germany eliminated one of the other two seeded players who saw action Monday, beating No. 10 Catarina Lindqvist of Sweden, 6-4, 6-2. In the only other match featuring a seeded player, No. 13 Kate Gompert beat Kathrin Keil, 6-1, 6-1.

After sitting out much of the European tour, including the French Open, Bunge was glad to beat Benjamin, who has one of the most difficult styles on the women’s tour.

“It was a relief,” Bunge said. “I’m glad I pulled it off. (Camille’s) game is difficult. You don’t really know what you should do. It’s hard to establish a rhythm against her.

“It’s not really a lot of fun to go out and play somebody like this. You really have to fight and keep in there. I had to take some of these balls and really attack her.”

Bunge, who seems to have spent the better part of the last four years trying to come back from one injury or another, is doing it again. In 1986, she pulled her world ranking back up to No. 13 after slipping out of the top 20 in 1984 and 1985.

She said her latest injury, the inflamed nerve that tightened the muscles in her back, was the result of too much play. She added, however, that she is fine now, thanks to a treatment of cortisone-based injections prescribed by a West German doctor.

“The whole right side of my back was so sore I couldn’t sleep . . . “ Bunge said. “But now, it’s pretty much gone.”

Bunge’s best finish this summer was her runner-up performance at the Belgium Open in July, where she lost to Kathleen Horvath. It was her first tournament final in four years.

Although she is not predicting an appearance in the final here, Bunge likes her position in this tournament.

“There’s no pressure on me here,” she said. “It’s all Martina and Steffi (Graf). Nobody’s looking at me. Nobody really cares.”

Among other first-round winners were Patty Fendick, two-time National Collegiate Athletic Assn. women’s singles champion, and 17-year-old Elly Hakami of Tiburon, Calif.

Fendick, 22, is making her first appearance in Los Angeles since winning her second straight NCAA title at the Los Angeles Tennis Center in May. She beat Mareen Harper, 6-4, 5-7, 6-2. Hakami also went three sets before beating Beverly Bowes, 5-7, 6-2, 6-1.

Fendick and Hakami see the tournament as a chance to start establishing names for themselves on the women’s pro tour.

For Fendick the challenge is to move beyond the glories of her college days, something other women’s collegiate stars, such as Louise Allen, a loser to Hakami in Sunday’s qualifying, and Alycia Moulton, a winner Monday, have not been able to do.

“I’m trying to not live off my past glories because this is a completely different arena,” Fendick said. “I have to put all of that behind me. I’m just testing the waters of professional tennis.”

The water figures to get pretty choppy for Fendick Wednesday, when she plays fourth-seeded Hana Mandlikova.

Hakami, aware of the problems former top collegians have had breaking into the upper echelon of the professional ranks, is testing the water at an even younger age. She graduated from high school this spring and will be 18 in two weeks, but she turned professional last November.

Last week, Hakami lost in the quarterfinals of the Virginia Slims of San Diego to top-seeded Lori McNeil.

“I’d played with a lot of college players (before turning pro) and beaten most of them, so I decided to turn pro,” Hakami said. “It’s always been my goal to be a professional player.”

For Hakami, the challenge is to prove that she, unlike other U.S. teen-agers who have never sustained a challenge against Navratilova and Chris Evert, is a teen sensation with staying power.

“It’s in the back of my mind, that I’ve achieved this so young,” Hakami said. “But I don’t think about it every day when I play. I keep thinking if I keep playing well, I can knock off a top-seeded player.”

Tournament Notes In tonight’s featured match, third-seeded Chris Evert will play Robin White at 7. Evert practiced at Manhattan Country Club Monday afternoon with former husband John Lloyd. Current boyfriend Andy Mill was on the sidelines watching. . . . Lisa Bonder won her first-round match over Niege Dias of Brazil, 6-4, 6-7, 6-4. . . . Another seeded player in action today will be No. 2 Steffi Graf of West Germany, who plays Terry Phelps in the day’s third center-court match. No. 7 Gabriela Sabatini of Argentina will precede her doubles partner on center court against Nathalie Tauziat of France. . . . Top-seeded Martina Navratilova will play her first match Wednesday against the winner of today’s match between Gretchen Rush Magers and Michelle Torres.