ROME. May 4 : Ivan Lendl and Bjorn Borg may have to dig deep into their reserves of courage

when they return to Rome for the Italian Open tennis tournament. reports Reuter.

World number three Lendl, who declared he would never play tn Rome again after being constantly heckled by the Italian crowd on his way to the title in 1988. has decided he Is ready to face the rowdy Foro ItaMco fans again.

Five-times Wimbledon champion Borg, returning at the age of 34 after a consider ably longer absence than the Czechoslovak-born American, faces a far tougher test of his mettle in his comeback at-

Hls first competitive match for eight years in Mote Carlo last month ended in a humiliating defeat, followed shortly after by the added trauma of a suicide attempt by his Italian wife lx>redana Bcrte.

Organisers said Borg, win ner on his last appearance In Rome when he beat Italian idol Adriano Panatta in the 1978 final, had asked to play

but they could not confirm he would do so

The entry for the tournament is the strongest for years.

It includes most top players except men's world number one Stefan Edberg and women's number two Steffi Graf

The SOO.OOO-dollar women's tournament, for whi ch seeds will be announced on Sunday, runs from May 6 to 12.

The men's competition, worth 1.28 million dollars, is from May 13 to 19.

With Graf absent because of playing commitments In her

native Germany, the women's favourite is likely to be world number one Monica Seles who won last year.

Yugoslav Seles, who in March knocked Graf off the number one perch she had oc copied since August 1987. can expect to meet either third-ranked Gabriela Sabatini of Argentina or the fourth-ranked Martina Navratilova In the final.

As well as Sabatini. the wildly partisan fans will get behind American teenager Jennifer Capriati — beaten by the Argentine last year — and Italian number one Sandra Cecchinl.

In the men's competition, three-times Wimbledon win ner Boris Becker, who was beaten in the final of the Monte Carlo Open on Monday, will again be chasing that elusive first clay court title

Lendl, more at home on clay than Becker, won here tn 1986 and 1988.

Also strongly in Die running will be Guy Forget of France, now world number five behind Andre Agassi. It Is not yet clear whether the colourful American will play in Rome.

Last year's winner. Austrian

Thomas Muster, has dropped out of the lop 20 but remains a dangerous outsider.

Local passion will be reserved for Italy's fastest-rising player. Cristiano Caratti. dubbed the Karate Kid. who beat Lendl at the Milan indoor tournament in February

Other crowd pullers will be John McEnroe, whose fiery temperament delights the raucous Italian fans, and Sweden’s Mats Wiiander, buck after dabbling in a rock music career.