How Much Is Too Much?

For his part, Chatrier considers Jordan a Ham-handed interloper, an arriviste with no respect for the game. Chatrier wasn't talking last week, fearing the ATP would "take out of context and distort what I say." But of Jordan he has told the French daily L'Equipe, with no little Gallic hauteur, "He does not even know what a tennis ball is. He knows only about golf and politics."

The verbal volleys are so punchy because the stakes are so high, particularly in tennis-mad West Germany. Only four years ago the MTC was lucky to get $150,000 from the European Broadcasting Union for the right to telecast the Masters on the Continent. The ATP has already struck a reported $5 million deal with a West German network for the West German rights to the world championship and other tournaments.

One night last week several Grand Prix employees trolled through the hospitality tents at the Masters, packing uneaten Nabisco products into shopping bags. As they carried the munchies to homeless New Yorkers huddled near the entrance to Penn Station, beneath Madison Square Garden, their gesture seemed at odds with the unchecked plenty promised by the rivalry between administrators of the Grand Slam tournaments and the players' union. When the ATP Tour begins next year, it will be worth watching to see just how tennis's rich new cookie crumbles.