6th-Seeded Mayotte Ousted in First Round of Australian Open

Teen-ager Pete Sampras served notice that another U.S. tennis star was rising by outlasting sixth-seeded Tim Mayotte 7-6 6-7 4-6 7-5 12-10 today in an all-American clash in the first round of the Australian Open.

Spain’s Emilio Sanchez, seeded seventh, was another opening-day victim, succumbing to big-serving Frenchman Jean Fleurian, ranked 57 in the world, by 6-2 6-4 6-4.

Steffi Graf, the queen of women’s tennis, survived a scare in the second set against 17-year-old American Carrie Cunningham, trading hammer forehands for 75 minutes before winning 6-2 7-5 on a day that mixed rain and sunny spells.

Ivan Lendl, the men’s top seed and defending champion, found his best form elusive but moved safely into the second round of the first grand slam tournament of the 1990s, beating American Jim Pugh 6-3 6-2 6-4.

Sampras took four hours and 45 minutes to wrap up his second victory in six days over Mayotte, who signed his own death warrant by serving double faults on the final two points.

Despite earlier saving himself with an ace on his second serve on match point against him, Mayotte was left regretting his frail second serve that caused him to serve 11 double faults in the protracted final set.

“It’s a real Achilles’ heel for me,” said Mayotte, who had appeared well beaten at 4-1 down in the final set before rain caused a 26-minute interruption.

“It’s tough because I’ve trained as hard as I’ve ever trained for two months and was very excited at coming down here. That’s the way the chips fall, I guess.”

The 18-year-old Sampras, who initially came to prominence by beating Mats Wilander in last year’s U.S. Open, admitted the match could easily have swung the other way.

“I was very lucky,” he said. “But most of the guys on the tour know Tim has a pretty shaky second serve, especially in tight situations.”

Graf, who has not dropped a set in winning two successive titles here, lost her touch for several games in the second set to present the left-handed Cunningham with a 5-2 lead.

But the moment of truth proved too much for the 1988 U.S. Open junior champion, and the West German world No. 1 conceded just five more points before wrapping up victory in a thrilling match with two successive aces.

“It’s everyone’s nightmare to play Steffi in the first round, but I was proud of the way I played,” said Cunningham, 17. “I couldn’t believe it when I was 5-2 up. I was so astonished I think that’s what made me start making errors.”

Lendl, who came close to collapse last year from heat exhaustion, played during the hottest part of the day and wore a Foreign Legionnaire-type hat to ward off the sun.

He broke Pugh, who won the 1988 and 1989 doubles titles with fellow American Rick Leach, in Pugh’s opening service game and quickly wrapped up the first set.

The second set resembled a comedy of errors with both players drawing groans from the crowd with a welter of unforced mistakes before Lendl grabbed the vital break in the fifth game.

Lendl attributed his unimpressive showing to his early departure in last week’s New South Wales Open where he was beaten in the quarterfinals by France’s Yannick Noah.

“I had too much stored energy and I was over-hitting like crazy,” Lendl told journalists.