TENNIS / U.S. OPEN : 5th Seed Gomez Eliminated

And now the French Open champion is gone.

A day after Wimbledon champion Stefan Edberg--the world’s top-ranked player--was upset in the first round at the U.S. Open, French champ Andres Gomez was eliminated today by Brazil’s Lujiz Mattar.

Mattar beat the fifth-seeded Gomez, ranked fifth in the world, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.

“I wasn’t prepared for this tournament,” Gomez said. “You might be poorly prepared like I was, or you might be greatly prepared like Edberg.”

In June, Gomez won his first Grand Slam title in Paris, but a few weeks later he was a first-round loser at Wimbledon.

In second-round matches today, second-seeded Martina Navratilova, seeking her fifth U.S. Open title, defeated Britain’s Clare Wood 6-0, 6-4 and Ivan Lendl, the men’s third-seed and a three-time champ, eliminated Michael Stich of West Germany 6-4, 5-7, 6-3, 6-3.

In another first-round match today, Goran Ivanisevic of Yugoslavia defeated Italy’s Omar Camporese 1-6, 6-4, 6-1, 7-6 (7-3). Ivanisevic has fared well in Grand Slam events this year, shocking Boris Becker in the first round of French and reaching the semifinals at Wimbledon before losing to the West German.

No. 16 seed Martin Jaite of Argentina was also a first-round loser today, falling to Paul Annacone 7-6 (7-5), 6-2, 6-2.

Gabriela Sabatini won her second-round match, defeating Isabelle Demongeot of France 6-1, 6-1 at the U.S. Open.

Sabatini was sharp and relentless, taking a 5-0 lead in the opening set and going up 3-0 in the second. Demongeot’s only game in the second set came when she broke Sabatini in the fourth game at 15.

“I feel very good, very confident,” Sabatini said. “I think I’m playing my best right now. Today was a good match. I made it easy.”

Sabatini was runner-up at the U.S. Open in 1988 and a semifinalist on the hard courts at the National Tennis Center last year. But this year, she is one of the forgotten seeds, with everyone looking at Steffi Graf, Monica Seles and Martina Navratilova, winners of the first three Grand Slams, as the heavy favorites.

“It seems everybody is thinking Graf, Seles, Martina,” said Sabatini, the No. 5 seed. “I feel better that way.”

Women’s seventh seed Katerina Maleeva of Bulgaria moved into the second round in straight sets. In the unkindest cut of the draw, however, Maleeva’s victory came at the expense of her younger sister, Magdalena.

Katerina, showing little mercy for the youngest of the three tennis-playing Maleeva sisters, won 6-3, 6-1 in 54 minutes on an outside court that drew a good portion of the early crowd away from the main stadium at the National Tennis Center.