TENNIS ROUNDUP : Careless Sampras Beaten in Italian Open

Pete Sampras, the only one of the top four seeded players to make it past the first round at the Italian Open, was beaten in the second round Wednesday at Rome. Sampras lost to Frenchman Fabrice Santoro, 6-2, 4-6, 7-5.

“I just let the match get away from me,” Sampras said. “I played some really careless tennis. He’s not the kind of guy who’s going to beat you. He’s going to wait for you to make a mistake.”

In another second-round upset, Goran Prpic of Yugoslavia defeated 13th-seeded Jakob Hlasek of Sweden, 6-1, 7-5. Henri Leconte of France beat 14th-seeded Magnus Gustafsson of Sweden, 6-0, 6-3, and South African qualifier Wayne Ferreira knocked off No. 15 Alexander Volkov of the Soviet Union, 7-6 (7-2), 6-4.

Only four of the top 16 seeded players are still alive. No. 6 Jim Courier beat Sweden’s Nicklas Kulti, 6-0, 6-3, and ninth-seeded Emilio Sanchez of Spain won his second-round match against Austrian Horst Skoff, 6-4, 6-3.

Top-seeded Steffi Graf of Germany and No. 2 Gabriela Sabatini of Argentina breezed into the third round of the Lufthansa Open at Berlin, Graf beating Nicole Jagerman of the Netherlands, 6-2, 6-3, and Sabatini trouncing Naoko Sawamatsu of Japan, 6-1, 6-0.

Third-seeded Mary Joe Fernandez struggled past Barbara Rittner of Germany, 6-4, 6-7 (7-5), 6-2; No. 5 Jennifer Capriati beat Stacey Martin, 6-2, 6-4, and sixth-seeded Katerina Maleeva was upset by Amanda Coetzer of South Africa, 6-2, 7-6 (7-3).

Bjorn Borg put his comeback on hold, saying he will not play in the French Open and is still pondering whether to enter Wimbledon in June.

Borg, 34, whose comeback began with an embarrassing first-round loss at last month’s Monte Carlo Open, has decided to continue practicing and testing new rackets rather than play the French Open starting a week from Monday.

Top-seeded Sandra Birch of Stanford and No. 6 Lisa Albano of California reached the final of the NCAA women’s championships at Stanford.

Birch defeated No. 4 Shannan McCarthy of Georgia, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, and Albano upset second-seeded Debbie Graham of Stanford, the defending champion, 6-3, 6-0.

In doubles, top-seeded Mamie Ceniza and Kimberly Po of UCLA reached the semifinals by defeating Susan Gilchrist and Joanna Plautz of Texas, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.

Janna Kovacevich and Noelle Porter of Pepperdine also advanced to the semifinals with a 7-5, 7-5 victory over Birch and Graham.