Capriati Needs More Schooling : Tennis: Top-seeded Steffi Graf gives the 14-year-old a 6-1, 6-2 lesson in the U.S. Open and sends her back to class.

Security guards flanked 14-year-old Jennifer Capriati as she moved through a crowd in a tunnel on her way back to the locker room Monday. She had a lollipop in her mouth.

Minutes earlier, Capriati sat glumly in the interview room and tersely answered questions about how she lost her fourth-round U.S. Open match to Steffi Graf, 6-1, 6-2.

“This is not the end of the world for me,” Capriati said. “I’ll just think about it and continue on.”

It took only 53 minutes for Graf to teach Capriati a lesson and send her back to school, where her peers do not smash forehands at her feet.

Ninth-grade classes began last Monday at the private school in Boca Raton, Fla., where Capriati is enrolled, but she knew she had just learned something very important about Graf.

“I think Steffi is definitely still at another level,” Capriati said.

Boris Becker also won, reaching the quarterfinals, although not exactly with ease.

Becker engaged in a 3-hour 14-minute endurance test with Darren Cahill, who dumped Becker in the second round two years ago.

Becker beat Cahill, 2-6, 6-2, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, and said it actually is better to play five sets.

Why?

“It’s tougher for your head,” he said.

There was nothing tough about Andre Agassi’s 7-5, 6-0, 6-2 victory over Jay Berger. The only difficult choice was to whom in the crowd he would throw his sweaty shirt after the match.

Agassi, who would meet Becker in the semifinals, must first play a quarterfinal match with Andrei Cherkasov, who followed up his upset victory over Michael Chang with a 6-4, 6-4, 7-5 decision over Christo van Rensburg.

Becker must beat No. 9 Aaron Krickstein--who beat Amos Mansdorf, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4--before getting at Agassi.

Graf was swift to dispel any notion that her two-year reign at the U.S. Open might be in danger because of Capriati’s challenge.

“You could feel how much tension there was,” Graf said.

Yet Graf seemed positively serene before the match as she idly grabbed a steel beam above her head in the tunnel waiting to go out on the court. Nearby, Capriati nervously shifted her feet.

Graf had the first set secured in 21 minutes, helped by two service breaks.

On set point, Capriati returned a serve long. Graf took one step back, watched the ball bounce past the baseline, then walked briskly to her chair.

Capriati committed 18 of her 30 unforced errors in the first set.

“All she had to do was get the ball on the court,” Capriati said.

It soon got worse. Capriati lost her serve at 15 to drop the first game, failed to win a point for 0-2 then lost her serve for 0-3 when Graf cracked a forehand passing shot at 30-40.

Capriati made one challenge. She broke Graf with a sharply hit forehand into the corner, held at love for 2-3 and then held two break points.

“I thought then that maybe I could hang in there,” Capriati said.

She couldn’t. Graf saved one break point with a service winner, and Capriati blew the other when her missile of a forehand passing shot buried itself in the net.

From there, it was routine. Capriati fell to 15-40 serving at 2-4, then was caught sprinting along the baseline chasing down shots Graf deposited in one corner and then the other. Capriati couldn’t reach the second, and Graf served out the match at 5-2.

At deuce, Capriati netted a forehand, then Graf powered one more forehand into the corner to end it.

Graf and Capriati met at the net and shook hands, but while Graf signed autographs for fans in the box seats, Capriati collected her rackets and left the court quickly.

“I wasn’t doing anything out there,” Capriati said. “Next time, I can’t let that happen.”

Since she turned pro in March, Capriati is 1-7 against players ranked in the top five: 0-3 against Gabriela Sabatini, 0-2 against Graf, 0-1 against Martina Navratilova, 0-1 against Monica Seles and 1-0 against Arantxa Sanchez Vicario.

Despite the ease of her victory, Graf said she was not trying to prove a point at the expense of Capriati.

“Definitely not,” Graf said. “It’s very difficult to rate the match because I expected a very tough match. I knew that it wasn’t going to be easy against her because of the expectation. It just turned out differently. It happens quite a few times.”

Open Notes

Steffi Graf began a record 160th consecutive week ranked No. 1, breaking Jimmy Connors’ mark of 159. Martina Navratilova and Ivan Lendl held No. 1 for 156 consecutive weeks. . . . Zina Garrison, who is on track to meet Graf in the semifinals, continued to move silently through the draw. Garrison defeated Nathalie Tauziat, 6-1, 7-5, in the fourth round. So far, Garrison has not lost a set. Her explanation: “I really think there’s a lot of skill and a lot of luck.” Garrison, fourth-seeded, said she is happy when she is not given the same attention in a tournament as such players as Graf or Jennifer Capriati: “Before you know it, you sneak up on them. I really don’t worry about it. It’s much easier to concentrate that way. You just go on and play tennis.” . . . Jana Novotna defeated seventh-seeded Katerina Maleeva, 6-4, 6-2, and will play Graf in the quarterfinals.

Boris Becker said he watched John McEnroe’s 4-hour 20-minute victory over Emilio Sanchez on television Sunday. “It was difficult to miss such a long match,” he said. “Every time I turned on the television, he was still on.” McEnroe’s five-set victory was an impressive display, Becker said. “I was amazed that he came back from two sets to one down,” Becker said. “He kept his mind and his temper and fought back. I thought it was very good.” Andre Agassi was also high on McEnroe: “I’d live to see him in the finals.” If McEnroe beats David Wheaton in the quarterfinals, he would face either Ivan Lendl or Pete Sampras in the semifinals.