TENNIS ROUNDUP : Sampras Falls Behind Early and Never Catches Steeb

Second-seeded Pete Sampras was ousted Tuesday during the second round of the Monte Carlo Open, losing to Carl-Uwe Steeb of Germany, 6-3, 6-4, at Monaco.

Sampras, playing at Monte Carlo for the first time, made progress in his clay-court game when he advanced to the semifinals of the Nice tournament in France last week. However, Steeb, playing steadier from the baseline, jumped to a 5-0 lead after 19 minutes of the first set before Sampras finally won a game.

“I couldn’t get anything going today,” Sampras said.

Among the other seeded players to lose were No. 6 Petr Korda of Czechoslovakia, who was defeated by Magnus Larsson of Sweden, 6-3, 6-3; No. 7 Alberto Mancini of Argentina, who lost to Arnaud Boetsch of France, 7-5, 7-6 (7-3), and No. 12 Richard Krajicek, who was beaten by Marc Rosset of Switzerland, 6-2, 6-4.

In other matches, Alexander Volkov beat Girz Dzelde in a matchup of former Soviets, 5-7, 7-5, 6-2. Emilio Sanchez of Spain swept Olivier Delaitre of France, 6-1, 6-0. Delaitre beat Bjorn Borg last week in Nice.

Borg, hailed only a decade ago as tennis’ greatest player, was given the cold shoulder by organizers of the Monte Carlo Open after his latest faltering appearance on the international circuit.

Monte Carlo organizer Bernard Noat advised Borg to stick to the veterans’ circuit and hinted he would not give Borg a wild-card entry to the event next year.

Former player Ion Tiriac also told Borg to give up his attempt and said he would not give the 35-year-old Swede a wild card to enter the two tournaments he runs in Stuttgart, Germany and Kitzbuhel, Austria.

Noat’s reaction came after Borg lost in straight sets during the first round here for a second consecutive year.

Seventh-seeded Judith Wiesner of Austria was defeated by Wiltrud Probst of Germany, 6-1, 1-6, 6-3, in the day’s only upset of the opening round of $225,000 international women’s tournament at Barcelona, Spain.