COLLEGES SHOW FOREIGN FLAVOR.

Byline: Joe Jares

xenophobia n. Undue fear or contempt of that which is foreign, esp. of strangers or foreign peoples.

That definition is for people who thought they remembered seeing Xenophobia on the map somewhere between Timbuktu and Madagascar.

There are xenophobes among us - me included sometimes - who see all the foreign players of both sexes going to U.S. universities on scholarships and wonder why the valuable slots aren't going to American teens.

Foreign players in U.S. colleges are nothing new. Francisco ``Pancho'' Segura of Ecuador won three NCAA singles titles for Miami in the 1940s. Men's NCAA titles have also been won by Mexicans, a Peruvian, a South African and a Swede.

(We even appropriated the Peruvian, Alex Olmedo of USC, to help us win the Davis Cup in the late 1950s. Peru didn't have a team then.)

But now the situation is worse - or better, depending on your viewpoint:

At the recent National Intercollegiate Clay Court Championships in Baltimore, 20 of 28 women entrants and 21 of 28 men were foreigners. The men came from 11 countries, the women from 14.

UCLA's No. 1 woman next season figures to be a Hungarian, Kati Kocsis, but that's nothing. USC's men's team figures to be all foreign - Guatemalan, German and so on.

These foreigners are not only players but often good students. Last season, Srdjan Muskatirovic from the former Yugoslavia and UCLA, and Lukas Hovorka from the Czech Republic and USC, were both A students (see below). USC's Karolina Baklarova gets A's in subjects like chemistry.

I haven't seen any definitive study, but it seems to me that the foreigners stick around longer. UCLA's Justin Gimelstob, from New Jersey, turned pro after his sophomore season. USC's Cecil Mamiit, from California, turned pro after winning the NCAA singles title as a freshman.

American athletes are losing out on scholarships, that's the bad part. Other than to urge U.S. children to study harder, practice harder - or have the NCAA pass some xenophobic legislation - how do we change the situation?

Should we change the situation?

Your suggestions would be welcome. (Not you, Newt Gingrich.)

From baseline to net: Mark Ellis of Cal Lutheran was picked for the Collegiate All-Star Team by the International Tennis Association and Tennis magazine. He was in good company with Jeff Salzenstein, Stanford; Gimelstob, UCLA, and Mamiit, USC. Ania Bleszynski of Stanford, an alumna of Harvard-Westlake School, was on the women's team with Cardinal doubles partner Katie Schlukebir and Keri Phebus and Paige Yaroshuk of UCLA. . . .

Chanda Rubin of Louisiana, who perhaps could have kept up with the rise of Lindsay Davenport, has instead had almost a lost year. She broke a bone in her right hand at the Lipton in late March, didn't have surgery until late August and is rehabilitating at home. . . .

The ITA named 22 Division I men as Scholar Athlete All-Americans (junior or senior lettermen with 3.5 or better GPAs. The only West Coaster, a repeat pick: Hovorka of USC. . . .

On the women's side, there were 48 winners but only two from West Coast schools, Jennifer Canfield and Kara Kolb of Cal State Fullerton. . . .

Stefan Edberg, who won his 800th career match recently, said, ``Last year, everyone was asking me when I was going to retire. Now they're asking me why I'm retiring. . . .

Trivia time: Kamiko Date is only the fifth woman to retire while residing in the top 10 (she was No. 7). Who are the other four? Answer below.

Coming attractions: The desert empire of ex-UCLA star (and ex-U.S. No. 1) Charlie Pasarell keeps growing at Hyatt Grand Champions Resort in Indian Wells. His new State Farm Cup, Oct. 13-20, will be an opportunity for women ranked 40th and below, including Kimberly Po from the South Bay and UCLA and Tami Whitlinger-Jones from Stanford. . . . The four semifinalists in the event, which has a $75,000 purse, will earn spots at the Chicago (Oct. 28), Oakland (Nov. 4) and Philadelphia (Nov. 1) stops on the WTA Tour. . . . Admission is free. Information: [phone]. . . .

Po has 1996 victories over Anke Huber, Mary Joe Fernandez, Mary Pierce and Date.

PASSING SHOTS

For most of this century, California has been known as a producer of great tennis talent - from Maurice McLoughlin, ``The California Comet'' circa 1914, through Helen Wills Moody of the 1920s and '30s, Jack Kramer of the '40s, and Billie Jean King of the '60s and '70s, to Pete Sampras and Lindsay Davenport today. You would think the state's high schools, playgrounds and clubs could easily supply the local college teams, but apparently local coaches believe that not even the United States can fill their needs.

Pepperdine: No. 1 on the men's team will be Simon Aspelin of Sweden, who got to the quarters of NCAA singles last season. The top Waves doubles team should be Troy Budgen and Brad Sceney, both from Australia. And there is Masahide Sakamoto from Japan. The two top women figure to be Isabela Petrov of Mexico and Angela Lawrence of Australia.

UCLA: First-year head coach Stella Sampras thinks her No. 1 will be Kati Kocsis of Hungary, but why should Sampras be any different than Fresno State with a Bulgarian, SMU with an Argentinian, Washington with a New Zealander, Stanford with a Luxembourger or BYU with a Malaysian? The men's Srdjan Muskatirovic of the former Yugoslavia has used up his eligibility, but at the end of last season, coach Billy Martin had an Australian, Englishman and Frenchman with eligibility remaining.

USC: Men's coach Dick Leach has lost his top five players (sophomore-to-be Cecil Mamiit, the NCAA champ, turned pro). It appears that Leach will go with Fernando Samoya, Guatemala; Johannes Mueller, Germany; Scott Willinsky, Jamaica; Akram Zaman, Australia; George Bastl, Switzerland, and Patrick Gottesleben, Germany (the latter three due in January). On the women's side, there are Karolina Baklarova and Veronika Safirova of the Czech Republic, Eva Jimenez of Spain and South African Jacqui Boyd, who expected to enroll in January.

MEMO: Staff Writer Joe Jares can be reached via e-mail at ix.netcom.com.

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Box: PASSING SHOTS (see text)