TENNIS / FRENCH OPEN : Lendl Out, McEnroe in Tough for Openers

There was a flurry of not altogether unexpected activity Sunday, which conveniently served as an unofficial warm-up for the French Open beginning today.

--Ivan Lendl, a three-time winner, pulled out because his surgically repaired right hand is not fully healed.

--John McEnroe, practicing with Jimmy Connors, got into an argument with a French photographer and had to be pulled away by coach Antonio Palafox.

--Andre Agassi began making plans on how to spend two weeks in a city that the residents regard as the capital of all true culture.

“I kind of know what I like to do,” Agassi said. “Play some golf, VHS in my room, see some movies, listen to my disc player, McDonald’s and Burger King.”

That about covers all the options, to be sure. After all, what else could there be? It promises to be a rollicking opening day, with Agassi looking for a groove against Marc Rosset, 37-year-old Jimmy Connors taking on Todd Witsken and McEnroe running into Andrei Cherkasov, who poses more serious a threat with his racket than the photographer did with his camera.

McEnroe, seeded 15th, had the most difficult draw of the 16 seeded players. Cherkasov, ranked No. 17, is the highest ranked player not to be seeded and that can’t be good news for McEnroe, who lost his only clay-court match of the year and hasn’t played in this tournament since 1988.

Patrick McEnroe coolly handicapped his brother’s chances: “I don’t think he expects to win--I just think he wants to get some good practice before Davis Cup.”

In the meantime, Agassi seems uneasy as he holds vastly different expectations. Since defending champion Andres Gomez pulled out citing an injury, defending finalist and No. 4-ranked Agassi is the top player remaining in the field based on last year’s results.

But if Agassi entered the French Open last year on a roll, he comes into today’s first-round match at a snail’s pace. He is 13-8 compared to 17-3 at this stage a year ago and has failed to make the quarterfinals in five of his eight tournaments in 1991.

What’s more, if Agassi does not reach the final again, he will drop out of the top 10. Agassi insisted he is remaining upbeat: What better way to express that than by unveiling a new line of tennis clothes?

Purple is in, specifically in the thigh-hugging linings of his faded black shorts. Negativism is out.

“Right now, results-wise and confidence-wise, I’ve done better,” Agassi admitted. “But most of it depends on my finding my groove in two weeks. Keeping that in mind, yeah, I’m capable of playing my best tennis.”

Agassi is 2-4 on clay and reached the quarterfinals at Barcelona, where he lost to Guillermo Perez-Roldan. Then he lost his opening match at Monte Carlo to Horst Skoff and his first match at Rome to Eric Jelen.

Such results haven’t exactly sent Agassi’s confidence soaring, but he says he is keeping in pretty close touch with his emotions.

“I feel probably not so much discouraged, more along the lines of frustrated,” he said. “I know that I’m able to play even better than last year. It’s right there in front of me.”

French Open Notes

With Ivan Lendl’s withdrawal because of his wrist injury, former Pepperdine star Andrew Sznajder of Canada replaced him in the draw. Jonas B. Svensson of Sweden, a semifinalist a year ago, was also forced to withdraw because of an injury and he was replaced in the draw by Marcelo Ingaramo of Argentina.

Steffi Graf begins her pursuit of Monica Seles’ No. 1 ranking today with a first-round match against Magdalena Maleeva. Second-seeded Graf will reclaim No. 1 if she reaches the final and top-seeded Seles does not. According to the seedings, Gabriela Sabatini would meet Seles in the semifinals. . . . Jennifer Capriati, 15, opens the tournament with the first match on Centre Court when she plays Katia Piccolini of Italy. . . . Michael Chang, seeded 10th, opens against Jan Siemerink of Holland. Other notable first-round matches today include fourth-seeded Mary Joe Fernandez against Francesca Romano of Italy, fifth-seeded Sergi Bruguera of Spain against Scott Davis and seventh-seeded Guy Forget of France against MaliVai Washington.