TENNIS ROUNDUP : Agassi, McEnroe and Lendl Lose

Andre Agassi, Ivan Lendl and John McEnroe lost to unseeded players at the German Open on Wednesday, but Stefan Edberg and Michael Stich breezed into the quarterfinals of the $1.27-million ATP event at Hamburg.

Agassi, seeded 11th, was beaten, 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, by Carlos Costa of Spain. The seventh-seeded Lendl, 33, who has fallen to 10th in the world, lost to Omar Camporese, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2, and the unseeded McEnroe, 34, lost to Stefano Pescosolido, 7-6 (7-4), 1-6, 6-4. Italians Camporese and Pescosolido will meet in today’s quarterfinals.

Lendl, who moved sluggishly and looked stiff on the clay court, seemed resigned to his mediocre performance.

“My family has changed my life,” said the father to three small children. “They want to play with me when I’m practicing my serve, they scream when I want to sleep.”

The top-seeded Edberg, ranked second to Jim Courier in the world, defeated Jordi Arrese of Spain, 6-3, 6-4, and third-seeded Stich defeated German Davis Cup teammate Carl-Uwe Steeb, 6-3, 6-2, in 62 minutes.

Michael Chang and Goran Ivanisevic also won second-round matches.

Second-seeded Gabriela Sabatini of Argentina began her quest for a second consecutive Italian Open title, leading a surge of top players into the third round of the clay court tournament at Rome.

Sabatini defeated Mercedes Paz, also of Argentina, 6-3, 6-1, in a match played under a hot midday sun on the Foro Italico center court.

Sabatini moved Paz from corner to corner and was never pressed. The match was played mainly from the baseline, although Sabatini rushed the net occasionally to close out points.

Jennifer Capriati also moved ahead, but only after fighting off a match point against Sandra Cecchini of Italy and winning, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (7-4).

Playing her first match in four weeks, the 16-year-old Capriati seemed to have the match in hand after winning the first set, before her game fell apart.

Capriati committed 56 unforced errors, against Cecchini’s 29, and had 13 double faults.

“I didn’t have my rhythm, I wasn’t on my shots,” Capriati said of her sloppy play.

But she turned the match around when she began “thinking about what I was doing wrong and how I was playing rather than about the crowd.”

Also advancing were No. 4 Mary Joe Fernandez and No. 5 Anke Huber of Germany, but Argentina’s Bettina Fulco-Villella upset No. 6 Katerina Maleeva of Bulgaria and Australia’s Rachel McQuillan topped No. 9 Helena Sukova of Czechoslovakia.

Heavy rains that fell all day forced postponement of Wednesday’s matches in the U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championships at Charlotte, N.C.