TENNIS FRENCH OPEN : Sampras Rallies From Two-Set Deficit to Win

On Pete Sampras’ list of fun things to do, playing tennis on clay ranks with stringing rackets with his teeth. After all, if people were meant to play clay-court tennis, they would have little rollers on their feet instead of toes.

Yet, with the shadows stretching all the way across Center Court after 3 hours 21 minutes of his first-round match against Thomas Muster in the French Open, there was Sampras raising his arms in exultation at the end of a 4-6, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1, 6-4 victory.

For Sampras, seeded sixth, it was a semi-shocking result, especially for someone whose full-throttle, bombs-away, serve-and-volley style is far better suited to surfaces just a tad faster than the dirt the color of smoked salmon at Roland Garros Stadium.

“Clay is obviously the toughest surface for me to play on, but look at (Stefan) Edberg,” Sampras said. “He serves and volleys as well as anyone and got to the final two years ago, so it can be done.

“I would much rather be playing on grass, but we’re not at Wimbledon, we’re at the French Open.”

On Day 2, two other notable serve-and-volley specialists, Edberg and Boris Becker, joined Sampras in the second round, but they did it with straight-set victories.

Maybe it’s too early to forecast another performance of “Slowtime, starring Pete Sampras,” but for at least several hours Tuesday, he proved he is no longer a clay pigeon.

He came from two sets down and from 1-4 in the fifth set, principally because of the prowess of his serve. After all, 17 aces can make up for a lot of balls that he hit so poorly--if it had been baseball instead of tennis, they would have been scored ground-rule doubles.

For example, in the eighth game of the fifth set, Sampras finally caught up at 4-4 when he blasted four aces past Muster.

Said Muster: “Well, it’s a little frustrating to have a break point and then look at four aces, but I guess if somebody is looping the ball at you for three hours, it is better to see this. At least, you don’t get a sore shoulder.”

Becker and Edberg looked different, but experienced the same results. Becker swamped Jordi Arrese of Spain, 6-2, 7-5, 6-2, and Edberg had an even easier time with 20-year-old Belgian Bart Wuyts, 6-2, 6-2, 6-3.

To try to get ready for the French Open, Becker cut his hair and decided to let his scruffy beard grow.

Any other reason?

“Just lazy,” Becker said.

Edberg could not finish the World Team Cup special event in Dusseldorf last weekend after he injured his hip and needed to seek a chiropractor.

Against Wuyts, who spends most of his time playing lesser Challenger Series events, Edberg’s biggest problem was figuring out who he was playing, and that wasn’t that much trouble.

“I saw him in the locker room before,” Edberg said. “I figured out who he was.”

Sampras, who missed last year’s French Open because of an injury, made up for the 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 second-round loss to eventual champion Michael Chang in 1989. Since then, Sampras may not have distinguished himself on clay--he is 3-2 in 1991 with Thierry Champion next--but he proved to himself that he could stage a comeback. It was the first time, on any surface, that Sampras won a match after losing the first two sets.

“I didn’t think I was embarrassing myself after losing the first two sets, but I also wasn’t playing the greatest tennis in the world,” Sampras said.

“The last two sets, I wasn’t thinking about anything. I just wanted to get through the match.”

Tennis Notes

Zina Garrison, who hates clay-court tennis more than Pete Sampras, lost in the first round for the second consecutive year, this time to No. 35-ranked Naoko Sawamatsu of Japan, 6-4, 6-0. Garrison, seeded eighth, did not plan to play in the French Open but changed her mind. “Mentally, I just wasn’t there,” Garrison said. “I kept thinking about everyone telling me to not play the French Open, and I was wondering why I was here. I just couldn’t get it out of my head.”

Neither Monica Seles nor Gabriela Sabatini had problems with her first-round match. Seles ousted Radka Zrubakova, 6-3, 6-0, and Sabatini knocked out Marianne Werdel, 6-1, 6-1. Afterward, Seles said she and Sabatini are pretty good friends, but their relationship has its limits, after all: “I don’t go shopping with her,” Seles said.

Jim Courier, seeded ninth, won his first-round match against Derrick Rostagno, 6-3, 6-3, 6-0. Two other Americans went five sets: Aaron Krickstein needed four hours to defeat Eduardo Masso, 6-7 (7-3), 6-4, 2-6, 6-1, 7-5, but David Wheaton lost to Horst Skoff, 6-2, 6-7 (7-4), 3-6, 6-2, 6-4, in 3 hours 45 minutes. It was Wheaton’s third consecutive five-set French opening match--he beat Fabrice Santoro in 1989 and lost to Milan Srejber last year. . . . Goran Ivanisevic received a warning and a $1,000 fine for spitting in the direction of a linesman during his 6-4, 1-6, 6-3, 6-1 first-round victory over Frederic Fontang.