TENNIS / AUSTRALIAN OPEN : Three Seeded Players Fall in Second Round

Three seeded players in the men’s draw, including No. 7 Guy Forget of France, were upset Thursday in the second round of the Australian Open.

Christian Bergstrom of Monaco beat Forget, 7-6 (7-5), 2-6, 6-3, 6-4; Aaron Krickstein upset 10th-seeded Goran Ivanisevic of Croatia, 6-2, 7-5, 6-1, and MaliVai Washington beat 16th-seeded Goran Prpic, also of Croatia, 6-2, 6-4, 6-3.

Krickstein had the jump on the erratic Ivanisevic from the beginning. Ivanisevic had 49 unforced errors to Krickstein’s 13.

Although Ivanisevic, loudly supported by fans from the breakaway republic of Yugoslavia, took a 5-3 lead in the second set, Krickstein was never really in trouble. Using an effective backhand volley and lobs, he broke back.

Ivanisevic called his performance the worst in his career; Krickstein was happy with his game plan.

“I like to think I had a little bit of something to do with this,” Krickstein said. “The way I play him, keeping him back, works really well. The way we match up, I think I can beat him every time. He’s had a reputation for packing it in. I knew if I could get a lead, I’d be in good shape.”

Krickstein has won seven tournaments in his career but hasn’t won since 1989. He hopes things are about to change.

“My goal at the beginning of the year is to be in the top 10 by the (U.S.) Open,” said Krickstein, who will play Alexander Volkov in the third round.

Washington played well in New Zealand before this tournament. He reached the semifinals at Wellington and the finals at Auckland.

“It was great preparation,” Washington said of the previous two weeks. “I had a chance to play a lot of matches. I was really geared up for this.

“I was able to dictate the pace from the start. He was a little tight.”

In women’s matches Thursday, third-seeded Gabriela Sabatini easily beat Patricia Hy, 6-1, 6-1, and fifth-seeded Jennifer Capriati defeated Noelle Van Lottum, 6-3, 6-4.

On Wednesday, John McEnroe beat Andrei Cherkasov, 7-5, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, to set up a third-round match against defending champion Boris Becker.

In other men’s matches, No. 15 David Wheaton outlasted Nicklas Kulti of Sweden, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4, 2-6, 8-6, in 4 hours 20 minutes, and No. 13 Emilio Sanchez of Spain got past Pat Cash of Australia, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2, 6-7 (11-9), 3-6, 6-1.

In women’s matches, No. 12 Anke Huber of Germany beat Michelle Jaggard of Australia, 6-0, 6-1, sixth-seeded Jana Novotna of Czechoslovakia defeated Rene Alter of Canada, 6-3, 6-2, and eighth-seeded Conchita Martinez of Spain routed Stephanie Rehe, 6-1, 6-2.

McEnroe, showing flashes of the brilliance that won him seven Grand Slam titles, got into a dispute with the umpire over the use of the “Cyclops” device used to judge whether serves are long.

“When we walked out on court, we were told we were working by the machine,” McEnroe said later.

But after two of his serves were called out verbally without a beep from “Cyclops,” he started arguing. He didn’t seem to get much of satisfaction.

“He sort of basically lied his way out of it,” McEnroe said.

After the dispute, McEnroe settled down for his second solid outing here since his ejection two years ago when he threw a temper tantrum on the same center court. He came back from a lapse in the second set to take the third, then recovered from a break down at 1-3 in the fourth set to win the last five games of the match.