CONFLICT OF IMG INTEREST; AGENCY'S ROLE IS PROBLEMATIC.

Byline: JOE JARES 

IMG is a huge, powerful, rich talent agency. It represents Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi and Jim Courier. It represents Martina Hingis, Monica Seles, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario and Anna Kournikova.

It also runs tournaments - six of them - and one is in our backyard this week, the Acura Classic in Manhattan Beach.

IMG, nicknamed ``I Am Greedy'' by some critics, last year bought the rights to stage the event, not long before the death of longtime promoter Jerry Diamond.

To have one outfit represent performers and stage events is not new in tennis - and not even exclusive to tennis, or even sports. Agencies for actors have been ``packaging'' projects for years. The big agency MCA eventually evolved into a studio, Universal.

Back to tennis, Donald Dell's ProServ has run the Washington, D.C., men's tournament for years. There have been ridiculous times when ex-player Dell was an agent, broadcaster, promoter and more. He needed three heads and five hat racks.

The possible conflicts of interest with IMG and the Acura are many. Here are a couple:

Wild cards might go solely or mostly to IMG clients.

Every tournament has some promoter-discretion slots. Maybe a local favorite can be let in. Maybe a big draw will come aboard at the last minute.

If a ProServ client and an IMG client of approximately equal drawing power decide to apply for the last wild card, who do you think will get it?

There is probably not too much danger of the fans suffering because of this. Promoter IMG wants a successful event so will probably opt for the best, most-deserving player, although agent IMG might want otherwise.

Kournikova got a late wild card for the Acura. The 16-year-old Russian is an IMG client, but in this case, she's a young player most fans want to see.

IMG clients might get the best schedules.

Say Hingis doesn't like to play at night. Her agency could give her all day matches.

Say she is playing doubles also. That can lead to crowded schedules at week's end. Her agency could give her maximum time between matches, while her probable singles opponent, not an IMG client, gets stuck with a more-tiring setup.

The press and, presumably, officials of the Women's Tennis Association, are on hand to notice such tricks if they happen and scream about them.

While we are poised to do that, we should also stop muttering for a minute and be grateful that maybe the Acura field is better because of IMG's self-interest. Maybe Kournikova and Seles and Hingis are here only because IMG twisted their arms.

And what if IMG asks questions of its own, such as how come the owners of newspapers and even whole media empires can also own pro teams - the Washington Redskins, the Atlanta Braves and, maybe soon, the Dodgers? Isn't there plenty of room for conflicts of interest there?

The answer might be: We can't compartmentalize businesses. There is sprawl and overlap and duplication and perhaps even duplicity all over the place.

We just have to stay vigilant, and if there are abuses, not stay silent.

So we'll be watching more than the matches in Manhattan Beach.

The brothers Rombeau: Bill Rombeau, head of a ball-machine company in Burbank (Sports Tutor), is also president of the Southern California Tennis Association. He recently hired Henry Talbert from the national office to be executive director of the SCTA.

Bill also is active with the USTA on several committees.

Four Rombeau brothers went to North Hollywood High School, and three of them became important in tennis one way or another. (The other, John, is a professor at the University of Pennsylvania. He has a bad knee, says Bill, so is not a great candidate for court competition.)

Chuck played for coach Paul Xanthos at North Hollywood and won the City singles championship. He then played at Valley College and USC, where he was part of probably the greatest college team of all time (it featured Dennis Ralston and Rafael Osuna, who were Nos. 1 and 2 in the world). Chuck died in 1971 at age 26.

Jim came along to play for Xanthos and also won the City singles title, then moved on to Valley College and the University of Houston. The best player of the Rombeaus, he won the men's 45 hardcourts in Westlake Village recently and has represented the United States at several international events.

That was at least his ninth national title. He also won the boys' 14 hardcourt doubles in 1962, the boys' 16 hardcourt singles and doubles and boys' 16 doubles in 1964, the boys' 18 grass-courts singles and doubles in 1966, and the men's 35 hardcourts singles and doubles in 1990.

Bill then played for Xanthos at North Hollywood and was the only one of the brothers to be on a City-championship team. He then played at Oregon State.

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Photo: (1-2--color) Pete Sampras, left, and Jim Courier, below, are both clients of IMG, the ultra-powerful talent agency that now runs the Acura Classic at Manhattan Beach, posing possible conflicts of interest.

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