Lost Day in Desert for Seeded Players : Tennis: Chang withdraws, Sampras injured and five top names upset in first round of Champions Cup.

What kind of opening day was it at the $1-million Newsweek Champions Cup tennis tournament?

Well, all four seeded players who played were beaten, the defending champion lost, Michael Chang withdrew and Pete Sampras was injured and may have to do the same today.

Other than that, Monday was fairly routine. But even Sampras had to marvel at his extreme bad luck.

“This is the weirdest thing that has ever happened to me,” he said, shaking his head.

Sampras, who won his first pro tournament last week in Philadelphia, cut his right thumb and little finger when he slipped on a dirt-covered court playing doubles with Jim Courier.

In the first game of their match against Boris Becker and Guy Forget, Courier watched Sampras lose his footing and fall on his hand, which was still holding his racket.

“When I looked at my thumb, a whole big chunk of skin was gone,” Sampras said. “Hopefully, I’ll be all right for tomorrow. . . . (but) I might not even go on the court.”

Courier blamed the condition of the court, which had been buffeted by an overnight dust storm. Neither the Stadium Court nor the other show court was washed. The three outer courts were cleaned, which held up play for more than 30 minutes.

Referee Don Wiley said he thought the Stadium Court and smaller Clubhouse Court were not as dirty as the outer courts.

Courier said not washing the court was an error.

“It was a mistake,” he said. “If they lose Pete, it’s a big mistake.”

Courier said there was so much sand on the Stadium Court that balls left a clean mark when they skidded on the surface. Sampras continued to play, even though he could not grip his racket tightly, he said, then retired after Becker and Forget won the first set, 6-0.

Sampras, seeded 13th, is scheduled to play Ramesh Krishnan today. He left the locker room with his thumb and little finger bandaged.

“The court was very dirty,” Sampras said. “It really should have been washed. Forget almost slipped and went down, too. Just to be safe, they should have stopped play for a little bit.

“It was so dangerous and, unfortunately, I had to be the one with bad luck today,” he said.

Sampras was not alone in that category, although he was the only one whose wound required bandages. There were many other victims after a first round that claimed some unexpected casualties.

--Mats Wilander: The ninth seeded player lost to Swedish countryman Jan Gunnarsson, 7-6 (7-4), 6-4, and said afterward that he has lost his drive.

“I was playing bad and never really got into it,” said Wilander, whose ranking in the last 14 months has sunk from No. 1 to No. 11.

--Alberto Mancini: Eleventh-seeded, Mancini was overshadowed by 6-foot-7 Michiel Schapers, 6-4, 6-1.

Mancini, who used last year’s event here to springboard into the top 10, is heading the other way, from No. 14, after his second first-round loss in as many weeks and said his confidence is flagging.

--Miloslav Mecir: The defending champion experienced back problems again and lost to Richey Reneberg, 5-7, 6-3, 6-3.

“It’s just pity I could not give everything I had,” said Mecir, who said his disk problem is worsening.

Reneberg, who reached the final in Wellington, said he had a problem with the court.

“With this new ATP Tour, this should have been taken care of,” he said. “The whole court was covered in dirt.”

Upsets also claimed 10th-seeded Martin Jaite, who lost, 6-1, 6-4, to Goran Ivanesevic; and 15th-seeded Andrei Chesnokov, who lost to qualifier Brad Pearce, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.

Chang was out before even hitting a ball. The 1989 French Open champion, who separated a bone in his left hip in a freak injury last December, came back last week in Memphis and lost in the first round.

Chang received an appearance fee to play in the Volvo/Memphis tournament. He was designated to play Newsweek, which, as a championship series event on the IBM/ATP Tour, is entitled to have six top-10 players designated.