Loss Has Connors Talking Retirement : Wimbledon: After losing to Luis Herrera, 6-2, 1-6, 7-5, 6-3, on opening day, he says it’s less than 50-50 that he’ll be back.

At 39, Jimmy Connors celebrated his 20th anniversary of Wimbledon competition Monday, then announced his retirement . . . sort of.

“I’ve done this long enough,” said Connors, who after losing in the first round here for only the second time, packed his racket bag, looked straight ahead and walked off into a tunnel as shadows lengthened across Court 1.

Luis Herrera, a 20-year-old from Mexico City who lives in Deerfield Beach, Fla., ushered Connors toward an uncertain future with a 6-2, 1-6, 7-5, 6-3 decision on opening day of the 106th Wimbledon.

It was an untimely exit for Connors, a two-time Wimbledon champion who has played and won more matches here than any other male player.

But will he be back?

“Less than 50-50,” Connors said. “Basically, it’s not worth the pain any more. I hurt every day.

“I’ll have to rethink if it’s worth it anymore, to be honest with you . . . it’s probably time for me to start playing less.”

Connors said chances are he will be back at the U.S. Open, during which he will turn 40, but is looking to playing no more than eight tournaments in 1993, a schedule that does not include Wimbledon, where Connors is 84-18.

He won his first Wimbledon title 18 years ago and his last 10 years ago. He made his Wimbledon debut in 1972 and played every year except 1990, when he was sidelined with a wrist injury.

“You know that’s not to say that I’m going to stop altogether . . . but you know my son is going to be 13 and my daughter is 7 and I’ve missed the first seven years of my daughter’s life and the past seven years of my son’s life and I don’t want to miss any more.”

The only upset here was that it didn’t rain. In fact, the long-range forecast is for a dry week. As if to celebrate, all of the men’s top-10 players who played whipped through their opening matches with great dispatch, led by top-seeded Jim Courier.

The No. 1-ranked Courier, who supposedly is not at ease on grass courts, looked right at home while chopping down Germany’s 6-foot-5 Markus Zoecke, 6-2, 6-3, 6-3.

Afterward, Courier offered his assessment of Zoecke: “He’s kind of a big fella.”

Conversely, most of the big matches Monday were kind of short. Every one of the 11 seeded players won and only two needed more than straight sets. Among those who breezed, besides Courier, were Stefan Edberg, Michael Stich, Boris Becker, Pete Sampras, Goran Ivanisevic and Ivan Lendl.

Edberg swamped Steve Bryan, 6-1, 6-3, 6-0; Stich defeated Stefano Pescosolido, 6-3, 6-3, 6-2; Becker downed Omar Camporese, 7-5, 6-3, 7-5, and Sampras worked over Andrei Cherkasov, 6-1, 6-3, 6-3.

The oddsmakers’ choice to unseat defending champion Stich, Edberg allowed only four games to Bryan and said an easy match suited him just fine.

“I think whenever you can win, whenever you can win comfortably, that’s always good news,” Edberg said. “It was a reasonable match for me, I think.”

Becker was playing only his second match in six weeks, but the three-time Wimbledon champion said he felt completely at home on the plush grass of Centre Court.

“It’s a better moment when you come in here knowing you are playing great . . . I mean that didn’t happen,” Becker said. “But I’ve played here many, many times, so I know on that court I can play good tennis. That was probably the most important thing coming into that match, just knowing about the past.”

If Connors was about to become part of the past tense of tennis, he said he has a very good reason. In fact, Connors said he wasn’t even disappointed by losing to Herrera.

“You know, I went out and did the best I could and that’s it,” he said. “I’m past disappointment. My tennis is way past disappointment. I’ve been through all that and got through it without ever crying and shedding tears and all that, so I’m past that. . . .

“If I hit a time when I just don’t feel like I can play in the middle of a match, then that’s not fair . . . because in my whole career I’m the one who’s been in there for five hours, if it took five hours. . . .

“It’s, you know, when I get to a point in a match where things just get too painful and my hips go and my knees get too sore and my back stiffens up and I don’t move as well and I can’t bend down, then my son who is 13 would have a good chance against me.”

Connors saw his son Brett standing in the back of the interview room.

“Wouldn’t you, Brett?”

Brett thought about it for a minute.

“Uh, I don’t know,” he said.

On this day, it was a question that didn’t need an answer. His father didn’t have many answers.