French Open Tennis Championships : Raindrops Dampen Drop Shots in Paris

Maybe Lawson Duncan can find out who stole the sun in one of those detective stories he loves to read.

Once again, rain was a winner at the French Open, where the day was not only damp, but colorful. Green tarps were rolled over red clay under a gray sky.

Play was interrupted Saturday at Roland Garros for the second consecutive day, but neither wind nor rain nor courts of clay could keep Duncan from his appointed round, which is the round of 16.

A rare American clay-court specialist who has never made it past the second round here, Duncan got his match in early and defeated Jerome Potier of France, 6-4, 6-0, 6-4. Duncan, from Asheville, N. C., is ranked 67th in the world and he is 11-4 on clay since May.

Andre Agassi’s timing was not quite as good as Duncan’s. His match with Jim Courier was halted because of darkness after each had won a set and Courier was ahead, 4-2, in the third.

The rest of the top seeded players spent a trouble-free day, except for trying to keep warm and dry. Ivan Lendl and Sweden’s Stefan Edberg and Mats Wilander won their third-round matches with ease.

On the women’s side, the moment of the day was provided by Yugoslavia’s 15-year-old Monica Seles, who upset fourth-seeded Zina Garrison of Houston, 6-3, 6-2.

Actually, Seles upset Garrison twice. The first time was when they walked on the court and Seles began passing out some flowers she was carrying. Seles tried to give a flower to Garrison, who backed off in disgust.

Although the crowd booed Garrison with vigor, she said later that she considered a flower an inappropriate gift.

“That’s just a bunch of big hype,” she said. “That’s something someone told her to do. You’re not out there to give flowers.”

Seles nearly broke into tears when she explained that the flowers were her own idea. Some of the ball boys had given them to her when she arrived at Roland Garros, she said.

“I didn’t want to cause anything with those flowers,” Seles said.

“In Europe, if you want to show someone respect, you give flowers,” she said. “I just wanted it to be fun. I was surprised she didn’t take it. I never intended to hurt her.”

Nearly any U.S. victory on clay is an upset here. Duncan, 24, grew up with clay-court stars Bjorn Borg and Guillermo Vilas as his heroes, so when he gets his feet on clay he loves it.

“On hard courts, when the ball travels at Mach 5, it’s Kamikaze tennis,” Duncan said. “Serve, return, volley . . . serve, return, volley, pass.

“There’s no exposure for U.S. players on clay, and that’s really a shame,” he said.

Just before the rain came, Gabriela Sabatini’s supposedly superior clay-court game came close to being exposed as something less than the formidable reputation it enjoys.

Sabatini, seeded No. 2 behind Steffi Graf of West Germany, was three points away from losing in straight sets but pulled herself together to defeat Nicole Provis of Australia, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3.

Provis, a semifinalist here last year, chose the wrong time to slump. She won only two points in five games, from the time Sabatini was serving to stay in the match at 4-5 in the second set until the Argentine woman led, 2-0, in the third.

Next for Sabatini is Mary Joe Fernandez of Miami, who started slowly but finished fast to win her third-round match against Niege Dias of Brazil, 6-7 (7-3), 6-1, 6-1.

Fernandez has defeated Sabatini the last three times they have met--but none of the matches was on clay.

Duncan’s next opponent is defending champion Wilander, seeded No. 4, who stormed past Omar Camporese of Italy, 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (7-2).

“Feeling as good as I did today, it’s hard to understand how I could have been playing so bad the last couple of months,” Wilander said. “I was hoping that by the French Open I would be 100% both physically and mentally. It’s a risky attitude, but I’m much better now.”

Sixth-seeded Jakob Hlasek of Switzerland was down and nearly out but came back to defeat Leonardo Lavelle of Mexico, 4-6, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Hlasek’s path to the quarterfinals is blocked by Alberto Mancini of Argentina, who defeated qualifier Paul Haarhuis of the Netherlands, 6-4, 6-4, 6-3, in 1 hour 25 minutes. Mancini is 0-2 against Hlasek, but both defeats were in exhibitions and occurred before the hot streak Mancini is enjoying.

“He is a good player, but I think he plays much better on hard court, so I think I have a good chance to beat him,” Mancini said. “Now, when I lose, I am surprised.”

Seventeen-year-old Goran Ivanisevic of Yugoslavia took only 1 hour 30 minutes to defeat Australian Mark Woodforde, 6-3, 6-4, 6-0.

Ivanisevic will play Edberg, a 6-4, 6-4, 6-4, winner over Jimmy Arias.

Michael Chang will face the top-seeded Lendl, who defeated Darren Cahill of Australia in the growing darkness, 7-6 (7-3), 6-3, 6-3. Chang won his third-round match over Spanish qualifier Francisco Roig, 6-0, 7-5, 6-3.

Tennis Notes

Michael Chang (17 years 3 months) is the youngest player remaining in the field. His advance into the fourth round here equals his best Grand Slam result, which was in the U.S. Open last year. . . . Sergio Bruguera of Spain, who ended 1988 at No. 333 on the ATP computer and is now up to No. 44, will play Ronald Agenor of Haiti in the fourth round. Andrei Chesnokov of the Soviet Union will play the winner of Courier-Agassi. The other fourth-round matches pit Jay Berger against Theirry Tulasne of France and Guillermo Perez-Roldan of Argentina against Boris Becker of West Germany.