Ferrando Stuns Seles in Open : Tennis: The third-ranked player finds the baseliner she expects serves and volleys her way to third-round upset.

With one swing of her racket, 24-year-old Linda Ferrando set sail from obscurity and quickly laid claim to the title of second-most-famous person from Genoa, Italy, immediately after Christopher Columbus.

Actually, Ferrando thinks she might be bigger than Chris right about now.

“Yes, I think so,” said Ferrando, who sank third-seeded Monica Seles Friday in the third round of the U.S. Open tennis tournament, 1-6, 6-1, 7-6 (7-3).

Ferrando was exploring uncharted waters. Ranked 82nd, she had never defeated a player in the top 10 before surprising third-ranked Seles, who seemed befuddled by her opponent’s serve-and-volley tactics.

“Suddenly, I don’t know myself what happened there,” Seles said.

How could this happen?

To begin with, Seles strangely was unprepared for Ferrando’s style. Seles had never seen Ferrando play and couldn’t remember practicing with her before the Virginia Slims of Chicago in February.

In fact, Seles had a hard time remembering what it felt like to be beaten.

“When I lose, wow!” she said.

It was an understandable reaction. After all, Seles hasn’t had much practice losing. She is 45-5 for the year and was 43-1 since she lost the first week of March, a span in which she won seven tournaments.

Now that Seles is gone, the player who benefits most is probably Martina Navratilova, who figured to meet Seles in the semifinals. Navratilova won her third-round match over Halle Cioffi, 6-2, 6-2.

Navratilova was surprised that Seles knew so little about Ferrando.

“There is really no excuse for that,” Navratilova said. “That’s taking it for granted, looking ahead, thinking about the quarterfinals and semifinals. You’ve got to get there first.”

Someone with Seles’ group should have scouted Ferrando, Navratilova said.

“She can’t go,” Navratilova said. “She’s signing autographs instead of watching opponents.”

Gabriela Sabatini, who is also popular with autograph hunters, defeated Sabine Appelmans, 6-2, 6-4, and will meet Helena Sukova in the fourth round.

Sabatini was brimming with confidence when she walked off the court, but she had felt the same way before the match, too.

“All I can say now is that I’m playing very good tennis,” Sabatini said. “Of course, it helps that Seles lost.”

Sabatini was figuring to meet Seles in the quarterfinals.

Seles served for the match at 5-4 in the third set and won two points. Even before then, though, she knew she was in big trouble.

“I was surprised when I had 6-1 in the first set and she keeps coming back,” Seles said.

Soon, it got worse. Ferrando held three match points with Seles serving at 5-6, but Seles saved them all. In the tiebreaker, Ferrando took leads of 3-1 and 5-2. At 6-3, Ferrando stuck a forehand into the corner for a fourth match point, but this time she didn’t squander it.

Ferrando pinned Seles at the baseline, and Seles ended the match by netting a forehand.

When Seles analyzed what had gone wrong, she had a lot to think about.

“At the important points, I was scared,” she said. “I wasn’t the usual myself today. It was just one of those bad days.”

Given Seles’ success this year, it’s difficult to find fault with her preparation, yet it seemed odd that she had completely misjudged Ferrando’s game.

“I knew she was a backcourt player, she doesn’t come to the net,” Seles said.

Actually, Ferrando is known as a serve-and-volley player who plays best on hard courts. Rino Tommasi, of Channel 5 in Milan, was stunned that Seles could have mistaken Ferrando for a baseliner.

“Of course she is serve and volley,” Tommasi said. “Of course, this is unusual because she is Italian.”

There was never any question in Ferrando’s mind that the proper way to play Seles was to be aggressive and attack.

“I know I am supposed to play like this before,” Ferrando said. “I know the only chance to win, so I serve and volley all the time. I always came to the net. She couldn’t do nothing, I think.”

Until Friday, Ferrando was not exactly a household name in Columbus’ hometown. Because she is the sixth-ranked women’s player in Italy, she knew she was a clear underdog against Seles.

Ferrando, who had never reached the third round in her 10 previous Grand Slam appearances, had as difficult a time in believing her success as Seles had in dealing with her failure.

“Right now, I can be unbelievable,” Ferrando said. “Maybe tomorrow, I can tell you how I feel.”

Tennis Notes

Andre Agassi found out the tab for his outburst in Thursday night’s four-set victory over Petr Korda: $3,000. Grand Slam Supervisor Ken Farrar announced the fine for unsportsmanlike conduct. Agassi swore at chair umpire Wayne McKewen and also was accused of spitting at him. Agassi admitted hitting McKewen with spittle, but said he wasn’t aiming at the umpire.

Agassi also admitted cursing, but said he was only talking to himself. “I tend to say things in half sentences. There is no reason for everybody to hear your thoughts, so basically, I said that ‘I’d be a . . . ‘ if I said that.” Agassi was fined $1,000 for unsportsmanlike conduct at the French Open when he trashed his racket and is still $3,500 away from the $7,500 limit in fines that would disqualify him from the Australian Open in January. Grand Slam fines have no effect on playing in the Davis Cup.

Ivan Lendl, who defeated Alex Antonitsch, 7-6 (7-4), 6-1, 6-2, seemed surprised that Agassi wasn’t defaulted. “OK, the first swear word is one warning, the second time is a point penalty and I forget what happens on the third one.” A third code violation results in a default. However, McKewen apparently heard only one obscenity.

Joining Lendl in the fourth round were Thomas Muster, Emilio Sanchez and Pete Sampras. Muster won a slugfest with Jaime Yzaga, 6-2, 6-2, 4-6, 5-7, 7-6 (7-3), and meets Sampras next. Sampras overpowered Jakob Hlasek, 6-3, 6-4, 6-1, but he isn’t looking past Muster to a quarterfinal with Lendl. “If I get past Muster and I play Lendl, 100% of the pressure will be on him and not on me,” Sampras said. “But we’ll just have to worry about that when the time comes.”