Wild-Card Players Have a Good Day : Sampras and Tarango Win First-Round Matches in L.A. Men’s Tennis Tournament

Monday was a good day for wild cards, but a bad day for Derrick Rostagno, a part-time drummer and full-time tennis pro, who beat a hasty retreat to the sidelines at the Volvo/Los Angeles tournament.

“I’m going to go home, get the drums and maybe beat out some of my frustrations,” Rostagno said.

Pete Sampras, 17, ranked 190th in the world, and Jeff Tarango, 19, ranked 161st, both wild-card entries in the 32-player field, won their first-round matches on a cool, gray opening day at the Los Angeles Tennis Center.

Robbie Weiss, the other wild card, pushed sixth-seeded Dan Goldie to three sets before losing 1-6, 7-6, 7-5.

Goldie was trailing in the third set 1-4 love-40 before he came back.

“There was a while there I didn’t think I had a chance to win,” Goldie said. “I got pretty lucky there.”

Rostagno, 22, became the first seeded player to go, losing 6-3, 6-4 to Tarango, his former practice partner. A junior at Stanford, Tarango is playing singles in only his seventh pro tournament.

Since Tarango grew up in Manhattan Beach and Rostagno is from Brentwood, they were frequent practice partners. Tarango had never beaten Rostagno, until Monday, so he felt pretty good about it.

“To win this puts me up to a different level,” said Tarango, who is resisting temptation to leave Stanford and turn pro.

“Not that I couldn’t come out on the pro tour and do really, really well,” Tarango said.

Rostagno felt really, really bad about losing in straight sets to someone ranked 123 places lower. At the U.S. Open, Rostagno went all the way to the quarterfinals before losing to Ivan Lendl and moving up to 36 in the rankings.

However, Rostagno’s good feelings had a short shelf life. He had a funny feeling when he played Tarango.

“I just felt absolutely not here,” he said. “I had absolutely no feeling out there. I was trying to find the center of the court. I was just aiming for the middle.”

He didn’t find it often. Down 3-2 in the second set after dropping the first set, Rostagno had a chance to come back, but he squandered three break points.

“It was just a joke,” he said.

Mark Woodforde, the eighth seed, defeated qualifier Robert Van’t Hof, 7-6, 6-1. A red-haired, left-handed Australian, Woodforde patterns his style after . . . Manuel Orantes?

“Yeah, topspin forehand, backhand slice,” Woodforde said. “You’re thinking Rod Laver. I never saw him play, but I hit with him.”

Woodforde, who defeated John McEnroe in a month -- at Torono and the U. S. Open, said he was wary of playing McEnroe at the Open.

“I knew for sure he’d be trying to kick my butt that time around,” Woodforde said. “The guy’s a legend.”

Woodforde could meet McEnroe in a semifinal match.

“I was just hoping I wouldn’t play him in an early round,” Woodforde said.

Sampras, who lives in Palos Verdes, got through to the second round with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory over qualifier Peter Doohan of Australia. Sampras will now play the winner of the Peter Lundgren-David Pate match. Pate is the defending champion.

Notes

How about this wild card doubles team: John McEnroe and Mark Woodforde? It’s true. They play Kevin Curren and David Pate today. As for Patrick McEnroe, he’s teaming with Paul Annacone in doubles. . . . Day-Glo has hit tennis. Light and very bright colorful accessories are hot items now. Some players have already their racquets strung with hot-colored gut.