The Michigan Daily-Thursday, July 23, 1981-Page 11
Solomon upset in
Washington tourney
WASHINGTON (AP) - France's
Pascal Portes upset No. 5 seed Harold
Solomon 1-6, 6-3, 6-2 yesterday to ad-
vance to the semifinal round of the
$200,000 Washington Star International
Tennis Tournament.
Both players agreed the turning point
in the match came in the first game of
the second set. Solomon was serving at
40-love when Portes rallied to take the
game.
"I DON'T know what happened. I
didn't lose my confidence, I just stop-
ped hitting," Solomon said.
"When I came back to win that game
I knew I could go all out and win the
match," Portes said.
Portes, who shocked the tennis world
last year when he beat then top seed
Jimmy Connors in the 1980 Washington
Star Tournament, has played poorly
more recently.
"I'VE HAD back problems and
played terribly since April," Portes
noted. "My victories this week have
been my first in four months."
. The 22-year-old Frenchman said he is
helped by the presence of countrymen
Yannick Noah and Christophe Freyss in
the tournament.
"It is good to have people from your
own country to talk to and practice with
when you are far from home," Portes
said.
SOLOMON, A winner here in 1974,
blamed his loss, in part, on a new over-
sized racquet.
"I've been using it for just three
weeks. I guess I'm just not tournament
tough," he said.
In a second upset Wednesday, Diego
Perez of Uruguay beat Paraguay's Vic-
tor Pecci, the sixth seed, 7-5, 6-1.
THE MATCH marked the first time
the two Latin Americans have faced
each other on the court. Pecci's coach,
Tito Vazquez, said Pecci was surprised
by the strength of his opponent's
backhand and that had contributed to
the loss.
Vazquez noted, however, that it was
Pecci's own play that led to his ouster.
"He (Pecci) did not serve well. He
has been playing too much and needs a
couple of weeks away from the game,"
Vazquez said.
In another match Wednesday, No. 4
seed Guillermo Vilas swept past Ferdi
Taygan 6-0, 6-0. Vilas has won this tour-
nament three times, most recently in
1979.
Elliot Teltscher, seeded seventh,
ousted Ben Testerman, 6-3, 6-1.
EDDIE DIBBS, No. 10 seed, bested
Spain's Jose Lopez-Maeso, 6-1, 6-1.
Czechoslovakia's Stanislav Birner,
who knocked off No. 2 seed Gene Mayer
on Monday, won again, beating Chile's
Pedro Rebolledo 6-3, 4-6, 7-5. Erik van
Dillen beat Spain's Gabriel Urpi 7-5, 6-3.
Yesterday evening, top-seed Ivan
Lendl was scheduled to play his first
match of the tournament against Italy's
Corrado Barazzutti.
AP Photo
Kissin' cousins
Two new Washington Redskins linemen, rookie Mark May, left, and veteran
Fred Cook go head to head during a training session at the Redskins camp in
Carlisle, Pa. yesterday.
No Progress: Owners and players
remain far apart
WASHINGTON (AP)-After 41 days and 490 can-
celed games, there were growing signs yesterday
that major league players and club owners remained
far apart in efforts to end the baseball strike.
Kenneth Moffett, acting head of the Federal
Mediation and Conciliation Service, said the two
sides had failed to engage in any face-to-face
bargaining during a five-hour session at the agency's
headquarters.
MOREOVER, MOFFETT, who has been the
mediator in the two-year-old battle over the issue of
free-agent compensation, said the sides would return
to the building after a two-hour lunch break but not
necessarily resume negotiations.
"We'll probably have a statement for you at that
time," Moffett said. He refused to discuss the im-
plications of the lengthy lunch break and indefinite
schedule for future talks.
Labor Secretary Raymond Donovan, who has spent
the past three days attending the baseball
negotiations, said "talks are continuing," but looked
grim as he and Moffett entered a restaurant for lun-
ch.
MARVIN MILLER, executive director of the Major
League Players Association, said that returning to
the negotiating site even if talks did not resume was
"not just a gesture."
"There are a few substantial things in the air we
have to check with each other," Miller said. "We're
going to be back."
But Miller appeared frustrated. Asked if the news
blackout imposed Monday at Donovan's urging might
be nearing an end, he replied: "It could be."
RAYMOND GREBEY, director of the Player
Relations Committee, the bargaining group for the
owners, was unavailable for comment.
The PRC's executive board, which sets negotiating
policy, was in Washington and, presumably, was
being briefed by Qre.bey ,.
Also in town was Baseball Commissioner Bowie
Kuhn, who met with PRC officials Tuesday night.
"I JUST TRY to keep up to date with them (the
negotiations)," Kuhn said. "Whenever I think it's
important I'm apt to be there from time to time."
The-commissioner was unavailable for comment
after the talks recessed. -
D.J. Yount, spokeswoman for the Mediation and
Conciliation Service, said she knew of no plans for
Kuhn to meet with Moffett or Donovan.
Meanwhile, the Washington Star reported that a
"significant development" was expected in the
strike, which has wiped out 24 percent of the 2,106
game season.
"IT MIGHT NOT mean settlement, but from what I
gather, it could be something major," the Star quoted
an unidentified source close to the PRC negotiating
team as saying.
The newspaper, however, also quoted an uniden-
tified club owner as saying that "the way the
situation stands right now, there is no basis for op-
timism."
The owner also told the newspaper that the players'
union had made a proposal Tuesday that it "knew
would not be accepted." There was no word on what
the proposal contained, and Miller refused to com-
ment on the report.
BEFORE WEDNESDAY'S talks began, Miller said
he had not met with Kuhn and refused to compare the
commissioner's surprising presence here with May
1980. At that time, Kuhn stepped into negotiations on
the eve of a threatened players' strike, which was
averted at the last minute.
"I don't know if it will help," Miller said.
The key issue in the strike is how teams losing
premium free agents will be compensated. Until now,
the only compensation has been an amateur draft
choice from the signing team, but the ownerswant
professional players in return.
THE OWNERS PROPOSE direct compensation
from the signing to the losing team. The players say
they'll accept professional compensation but only
from a talent pool filled by all the teams.
Another issue, raised last week in New York as
talks broke down, is that of service credit. The
players want full credit for time lost during the
strike, but the owners have said they are unwilling to
give credit for any time lost before lastThursday.
Service time is used to determine eligibility for
such things as pensions, salary arbitration and free-
agent draft.
THE STRIKE IS bringing hard times to many
businesses near major league ballparks, according to
one of the nation's top financial analysis companies.
Dun & Bradstreet said that 58 percent of those
businesses located near strike-idled parks have been
adversely affected by the lack of walkup trade
usually associated with baseball crowds.
In addition, D&B said, seven percent of the sample
said their businesses could not successfully sustain
the potential losses of a season-long strike and would
be forced to close their operations.
BUT THE SURVEY also showed that only five per-
cent of those businesses would close if the strike were
to last two months. The strike began June 12.
The survey found the impact of the strike was
especially severe in the neighborhoods where small
businesses surround the stadiums. For example, a
bowling alley near Yankee Stadium has been losing
about $2,000 for each canceled home game, and a
restaurant nearby has lost 80 percent of its trade, the
survey said.
Conversely, Shea Stadium, home of-the New York
Mets, is not surrounded by hotels, restaurants or bars
and there has beep no impact on the local economy
there, D&B said.