TENNIS / FRENCH OPEN : Although Focus Is on Courier, Connors Draws Early Spotlight

The clay’s the thing.

Here, at Roland Garros Stadium where the French Open begins its two-week run today, the playing surface often dictates the outcome of matches as much as who competes.

“A lot of weird things can happen,” said top-seeded Jim Courier, last year’s men’s champion.

Courier, the world’s top-ranked player who won the Italian Open two weeks ago, should know. His victory over Andre Agassi in last year’s final was unexpected.

What Courier and all the other seeded players here realize is the brick-colored clay of Roland Garros is a great equalizer. The soft surface takes the power out of power tennis and, as a result, endurance and precision shot-making are essential.

So where does this leave the field?

“The French is difficult because a lot of times the best players don’t win because of the clay,” said Jimmy Connors, who last year captivated fans by lasting three rounds.

Connors, 39, retired in the fifth set of his third-round match against Michael Chang, who himself was a surprise winner here in 1989 at age 17.

Whether Connors can regain the magic of last summer not even he dares to predict. But he wants to find out.

“That is why I’m going out to play again this year,” he said last week in Los Angeles,

He will have little time to waste because his first match will come against against No. 5 Michael Stich of Germany, a 1991 semifinalist in Paris and defending Wimbledon champion.

Stich is a hard-serving player whose game is better suited for grass. And when Connors is playing, he cannot be discounted. Many have tried, repeatedly asking him when he would retire. He is glad he stuck it out. Connors said last year--he also had an exceptional U.S. Open--was one of his most exciting because he recuperated from a wrist injury and played brilliantly at times.

“The more people want to push me out of the game, the more I want to show them one more time,” he said.

He has no illusions about winning the French Open, the only Grand Slam title to elude him. Connors said he would be satisfied to play two or three rounds because he considers the tournament to be a primer for the rest of summer.

Connors and John McEnroe, another one-time great coming to the end of his career, are not among the 16 seeded players. But whereas Connors drew Stich, McEnroe will play No. 93 Nick Kulti.

Courier will open against Swedish qualifier Niclas Kroon but could have a difficult route to another title. Upcoming are possible matches against clay-court specialists Thomas Muster of Austria, Alberto Mancini of Argentina and a quarterfinal showdown against Carlos Costa of Spain, whom Courier defeated in the Italian Open final two weeks ago. Andrei Chesnokov of Russia, always dangerous on clay, also is playing in Courier’s bracket.

“You can never count out the clay-court players,” Connors said. “This is where they make their reputations. This is where they get their rankings. They can do damage on any given day.”

Others to add to that list are Emilio Sanchez of Spain, Sergi Bruguera of Spain and Andrei Cherkasov of Russia, players who rarely make a dent at the other Grand Slam events.

Still, Courier is confident. He told reporters recently that he thinks his play is much stronger than last year at this juncture.

“It’s pretty much been a dream year,” he said.

Though the men’s division is difficult to handicap because of the clay, the top-seeded women usually thrive on the surface. Monica Seles, No. 1 in the world, has won the French Open the last two years.

“Clay doesn’t make that much difference,” she said Sunday. “You got to believe that that court is right for your game and that you love it.”

Roland Garros has been special for Seles, who won her first Grand Slam tournament here in 1990.

“Of all the clay courts, the ball bounces cleaner here,” she said. “The only time you feel it is when the clay is not smooth.”

Seles, of Sarasota, Fla., is 19-1 at Roland Garros, her only loss coming to Steffi Graf in the 1989 semifinals. Seles, 31-2 this year, including five tour titles, recently lost to No. 3-ranked Gabriela Sabatini of Argentina in the Italian Open final.

But she also lost to Sabatini in Rome last year.

“I can put that out of my mind,” she said. “I don’t like playing too well before a (major) tournament.”

Seles, 18, has won the last four Grand Slam events she entered, including the Australian Open in January. But she believes any of the top-ranked players could win at Roland Garros. That would be No. 2 Graf of Germany, Sabatini, No. 5 Arantxa Sanchez Vicario of Spain and No. 6 Jennifer Capriati of Saddlebrook, Fla.

No. 4 Martina Navratilova, like No. 13 Zina Garrison, is bypassing the tournament. Also absent is Boris Becker, a semifinalist last year who is nursing a thigh injury.

If Seles, whose absence at Wimbledon last year was the talk of London tea socials, has any complaints, it is that the clay-court season is too short. She plays about four tournaments on the dirt.

To be fair to all types of players, Seles said, tournament organizers should hold an equal number of events on each surface--clay, grass and hard courts.

“The one season that is too long is the hard court,” she said.

Connors, who like a generation of 1970s American players learned the game on hard courts, also prefers more-giving surfaces.

“They’re the most difficult thing on me now,” he said, adding that he played too much on the surface recently and is suffering from the effects.

Connors, however, is not asking for pity. He wants everyone to come along for the ride.

Tennis Notes

Seedings at the French Open are based on world rankings. As a result, hard-serving Pete Sampras, who failed to advance past the second rounds in 1989 and ‘91, is third. He will play unseeded Marc Rosset of Switzerland today, another clay-court hopeful. . . . Michael Chang, seeded sixth, hopes to rediscover the joys of Paris after losing in the the quarterfinals the past two years. He is ranked fifth and is having his best start with a 31-7 record. Chang has defeated No. 1 Jim Courier twice. . . . Three-time French champion Ivan Lendl, out of the top 10 for the first time in years, has returned to Roland Garros after a two-year hiatus. Lendl’s machine-like ground strokes are effective on the clay, but he has struggled recently.

Gabriela Sabatini has won five titles this year, three on clay. But she has never advanced to a French Open final. . . . Steffi Graf seems ready to claim her former place atop women’s tennis. She has won two of the last three clay-court events, including last week’s tournament in Germany.