TENNIS ROUNDUP : Weeds Beat Seeds as Gilbert, Chang Upset

Top players at the Volvo International tournament found being seeded doesn’t provide much of an advantage.

Top-seeded Ivan Lendl was the first to learn the lesson when he lost Tuesday night at New Haven, Conn. Third-seeded Brad Gilbert and fourth-seeded Michael Chang followed the trend in Wednesday’s second round.

Chang said he didn’t see any reason for the upsets.

“There’s no excuse for losing,” Chang said. “Sometimes you just come out on the short end.”

Todd Woodbridge, 19, ranked No. 135 in the world, beat Chang, the No. 10 player, 6-3, 1-6, 6-3. And Italy’s Cristiano Caratti, ranked No. 173, defeated Gilbert, 6-4, 6-4.

Both Woodbridge and Chang were content to stay behind the baseline. Woodbridge kept Chang slightly off balance with a solid forehand and a slicing backhand.

“It was tough to stay with him,” said Chang, who has played well in recent weeks. “He was able to execute the shots and just didn’t make a lot of errors.”

Caratti was watching a match on TV, when he noticed that sometimes Gilbert had trouble with his backhand. Caratti used that strategy in his upset victory.

“I saw a lot of him on television,” said Caratti, who had to win three weekend matches to qualify. “I tried to play a lot of first serves in, and I tried to hit it to his backhand.”

Caratti frustrated the defending Volvo International champion. Gilbert threw his racket at one point, batted a loose ball into the net at another and argued several calls.

“Not only hadn’t I heard of the guy, I’d never seen him,” said Gilbert, ranked sixth in the world. “When you haven’t seen a guy before, you don’t know what he’s got. It’s hard when you play someone ranked No. 173. You have everything to lose and nothing to gain.

“I’m definitely not concentrating as well as I was last year at this time,” added Gilbert, who ran off three successive victories last year going into the U.S. Open. “I’ve just been a little lethargic.”

Among the other seeded players to lose were No. 6 Goran Ivanisevic of Yugoslavia, who was defeated by Paul Chamberlin, 6-1, 7-6 (7-4); No. 8 Tim Mayotte, who lost to Derrick Rostagno, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3; No. 9 Richard Fromberg, who was beaten by fellow Australian Mark Woodforde, 6-1, 2-6, 6-4, and No. 15 David Wheaton, who lost to Bryan Shelton, 6-2, 6-4.

Defending champion John McEnroe used pinpoint passing shots to beat Grant Connell, 6-4, 6-4, in the U.S. Hardcourts championships at Indianapolis.

The performance was vintage McEnroe, without the temper tantrums. The New Yorker’s forehand passing shots and deft lobs repeatedly fooled Connell and trapped the Canadian at midcourt.

Fourth-seeded Jay Berger survived his own sloppy play to beat Darren Cahill, 6-1, 0-6, 7-5.

In another second-round match, third-seeded Aaron Krickstein, on his latest comeback from leg and arm injuries, beat 17-year-old Marcus Ondruska, 6-1, 6-1.

Other seeded players who advanced were No. 8 Jim Courier, a 6-3, 6-3 winner over Ramesh Krishnan of India; Jakob Hlasek of Switzerland beat qualifier Paul Wekesa, 6-4, 6-2, and No. 14 Richey Reneberg beat Leif Shiras, 6-0, 6-1.