Commentary: Smash Hits brings together greats of tennis

That as cool as it was to watch Andre Agassi and Stefanie Graf and James Blake and Tracy Austin — and Martina Navratilova and Andy Roddick and Lindsay Davenport and Mardy Fish — pound the fuzzy ball around the court for charity at Caesars Palace on Monday night, it would have been cooler to see them do it while they were in their tennis heydays, at a real tournament.

“This team was something during its primes,” Agassi said after warming up 45-year-old bones at a temporary tennis stadium flanking Las Vegas Boulevard in his hometown.

For veteran Las Vegas tennis aficionados, the 23rd Mylan WTT Smash Hits benefiting the Elton John AIDS Foundation (Sir Elton was one of the coaches, Billie Jean King the other) and Aid for AIDS of Nevada may have brought back blurry recollections of when the Alan King Classic was played at Caesars during the 1970s and ’80s with shag haircuts and wooden racquets.

Or that one year (1995) when Agassi and Pete Sampras led the United States to a victory over Sweden in the Davis Cup semifinals at Caesars.

Or another year, 2000, when Davenport and Monica Seles and Jennifer Capriati and Lisa Raymond blanked a team of Spaniards in the finals of 38th Federation Cup at Mandalay Bay.

Or when Jimmy Connors defeated Martina in one of those Battle of the Sexes exhibitions at Caesars in 1992. It seems only yesterday they were rolling that wheelbarrow of cash into the news conference, and Jimbo placed a $1 million wager on himself to win.

But though the World Team Tennis format was used for Monday night’s benefit matches, the WTT Smash Hits probably did not rekindle fond memories of the Las Vegas Neon, our short-lived WTT franchise. The Neon lasted all of 28 days and never played a match after the team owner was arrested in a Ponzi scheme.

Game, set, match, federal authorities.

So Las Vegas’ tennis past is both rich and checkered.

The Tennis Channel Open was an ATP stop Agassi won four times when it was played in Scottsdale, Ariz. When it was moved to Las Vegas and the spiffy Darling Tennis Center, Blake won the first year and Lleyton Hewitt the second.

It lasted only one more year. Sam Querrey won. Then the ATP bought the tournament and shut it down. Davis Cup matches now are played on that weekend.

To me, one of the great tennis mysteries, right after Bud Collins’ wardrobe and Michael Chang stumping Ivan Lendl at the 1989 French Open by serving the ball underhanded, is why Las Vegas doesn’t have a major and longstanding pro tennis tournament. Because Las Vegas is a country club city, and tennis is a country club sport.

But anything resembling big-time tennis that comes to town eventually seems to double fault. Or it tanks like Bernard Tomic trailing 4-0 in the third set with a plane to catch. Tomic, whose nickname is “The Tank Engine,” once lost an ATP match in 28 minutes. He might have made a fine addition to the Las Vegas Neon.

This may be oversimplifying things, but a conclusion to be made is that people here would rather play tennis than watch it from the grandstands.

You could make the same argument about pro golf, though the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open has managed to hang on despite the loss of Justin Timberlake and his pals (and Tiger Woods’ absence, and lately Phil Mickelson’s) by erecting party tents and so forth.

Agassi, looking fit and trim, brought up the story of him being a ball boy at the Alan King Classic during a brief prematch “news” conference.

I wanted to ask a follow-up, about his thoughts on what it would take to bring a big-time tennis event back to town. But there was time for only one more question, and Robin Leach had yet to ask his, and then Elton John’s team came in for some ribald humor.

Somebody asked about Sir Elton’s forehand, only he thought they said something else, and that started the sexual double entendres. I guess you get that sometimes at these celebrity events.

Navratilova rolled her eyes. When it was her turn, she said Sir Elton has a Million Dollar Piano but that she would be using a $200 racquet. I felt sorry for Davenport, whom the small media contingent either didn’t know or had forgotten. Nobody asked Davenport anything until the moderator interceded.

But I remember the 2000 Fed Cup, when she beat Arantxa Sanchez Vicario and Conchita Martinez, and Seles and Capriati won their matches and made the doubles anticlimactic.

Tennis fans chanted “USA! USA!” It seemed sort of important, and it was right here in our backyard. And though I don’t recall what was said at the news conference, I’m 99 percent certain there was a lack of ribaldry and double entendres.

— Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow him on Twitter: @ronkantowski.