TENNIS ROUNDUP : Maleeva Makes Capriati Her Biggest Upset Victim

Magdalena Maleeva upset fourth-seeded Jennifer Capriati, 6-1, 6-2, Thursday in the Pan Pacific Open at Tokyo for her first victory against a top-10 player.

Sixth-seeded Lori McNeil was another upset victim, losing to fellow American Pam Shriver, 6-4, 6-1.

Top-seeded Gabriela Sabatini defeated Japanese qualifier Mana Endo, 6-2, 7-5, and advanced to the quarterfinals.

At 16, Maleeva is the youngest of three tennis-playing sisters from Bulgaria. She is ranked 33rd in the world. Capriati, 15, is ranked sixth.

“Everything went well. I served well and returned well,” Maleeva said of her victory over Capriati.

“She made a slow start as usual, and she was unable to get her rhythm until the end.”

“I lacked concentration and everything went wrong,” Capriati said. “I tried to break her pace, but she shot back very strong ground strokes.”

Argentina is the decided underdog in its first-round Davis Cup match with the United States at Kohala Coast, Hawaii, a match the South Americans feel they shouldn’t have to play.

Argentina is upset at not being one of the eight seeded teams in the 16-team world competition, a situation that has it facing a U.S. team that lost the 1991 Davis Cup final to France last month.

Play opens today with two singles--Pete Sampras vs. Martin Jaite and Andre Agassi vs. Alberto Mancini. Doubles will be played Saturday, with John McEnroe and Rick Leach teaming for the first time against Javier Frana and Christian Miniussi. The reverse singles matches are Sunday.

Argentina says it would be seeded seventh if the Davis Cup selection committee had followed its rules and seeded teams based on the rankings of a country’s top three players. Instead, both Australia and the Netherlands were seeded ahead of Argentina.

The difference for Argentina is that it must play a top team instead of having an easier opening-round match.

For Sampras, it’s a chance to erase the memories of his disappointing performance against France, where he lost his two matches to deprive the favored Americans of the title.

“What happened was pretty difficult for me,” Sampras said. “I learned that I can’t take anything for granted.”

Top-seeded Andrea Strnadova of Czechoslovakia defeated Sara Gomer of Britain, 6-3, 6-3, in the second round of a women’s tournament at Auckland, New Zealand.

Strnadova was joined in the quarterfinals by fifth-seeded Alexia Dechaume of France, No. 6 Raffaella Reggi-Concato of Italy and Petra Thoren of Finland.