He Plays Into Lendl’s Hands : U.S. Open: Ivanisevic stays at the baseline against the three-time champion and comes up a loser. Edberg beats Chang.

Ivan Lendl has won the U.S. Open three times in the same numbing, ball-striking, bop-’til-you-drop fashion, so what was Goran Ivanisevic doing back there on the baseline Sunday, trading groundstrokes with the master of this game?

“It was my fault. . . . I don’t know why,” Ivanisevic said simply. “Bad tactic.”

It is pure Lendl logic that you dictate the style of play, which the 31-year-old has employed long enough to win eight Grand Slam titles. He did it again on Sunday and immediately trained his sights on No. 9 after outlasting Ivanisevic, 7-5, 6-7 (7-4), 6-4, 6-2, to move into the quarterfinals.

Lendl will face Wimbledon champion Michael Stich, whose game was as unpredictable as Sunday’s swirling wind, but he still managed to beat Derrick Rostagno, 6-2, 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (7-4).

Stefan Edberg swept past Michael Chang, 7-6 (7-2), 7-5, 6-3, in 2 hours 46 minutes, and will meet Javier Sanchez Vicario in the quarterfinals.

It very well could have been Ivanisevic playing Stich, but but the 19-year-old Yugoslav flubbed his chances.

He blasted 21 aces but had eight double faults. He blew a 4-1 lead in the third set and lost the next five games. He double-faulted at break point to lose his serve a second time to go down, 1-4, in the final set.

Ivanisevic blamed a sore back that caused him pain when he tossed the ball on his serve, but the real problem may have been his strategy.

“I was waiting for his mistakes, but you cannot wait for Lendl to make a mistake because he is never missing, you know,” Ivanisevic said. “I was wrong.”

In 3 hours 30 minutes, Lendl proved he can still hammer tennis balls with the younger generation.

Stich is directly in Lendl’s path.

“It’s a big match for me because I can get into the semis and once you are in the semis, you never know what happens,” Lendl said.

Rostagno had 12 break-point chances against Stich but cashed in only one. Frustration mounting, Rostagno whiffed on one service return, several times faked knocking balls into the stands and even conked himself on the head with his racket in disgust.

After knocking 23 aces past Jakob Hlasek in the third round, Rostagno had only five against Stich.

“I feel as though today was like a dream, like I didn’t even really wake up,” Rostagno said. “It was like a nice California morning. Maybe I was just expecting that heat and humidity and it got me by surprise.”

Lendl was hardly taken aback by Ivanisevic’s free swinging, but he did express surprise at reports of the back injury.

“Yeah, he looked (hurt) serving at 125 miles an hour,” Lendl said. “I would like to have that back pain every day.”

Tennis Notes

It took Monica Seles almost as long to sign her name in an impromptu postmatch autograph session as it did for her to win her fourth-round match Sunday. Seles defeated Regina Rajchrtova, 6-1, 6-1, in 48 minutes, then made three spins around Stadium Court to sign autographs for fans who leaned out of their seats and thrust pens and pieces of paper her way.

Third-seeded Gabriela Sabatini and seventh-seeded Jennifer Capriati also advanced to the quarterfinals. Sabatini, despite 12 double faults, defeated ninth-seeded Jana Novotna, 6-4, 7-6 (7-4). Sabatini committed 41 unforced errors and converted only three of 12 break points. “I am very satisfied,” Sabatini said. “I think I played very well.” Capriati beat Jo Durie, 6-1, 6-2, in 52 minutes for the right to meet Sabatini next.