TENNIS / U.S. OPEN : Ivanisevic Fires, Rosset Falls in 3 Sets

He’s a 6-foot-4 serving machine from Croatia who hits a tennis ball so hard it looks as if it is coming apart, but if Goran Ivanisevic is actually going to win the U.S. Open this year, then, well, he’s going to have to keep himself together.

Now, if you’re 20 years old and have a slightly off-center personality--picture sort of a Croatian Robin Williams--it’s not all that easy. Is it Goran?

“I’m not crazy crazy . . . well, a little bit, you know,” Ivanisevic said. “But I am young. I can still come back.”

On the first day of the U.S. Open, Ivanisevic showed his credentials for winning the whole thing at the baseline, the place where he hits those 125-m.p.h. serves. He slugged his way past sometime doubles partner Marc Rosset, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.

It was a typical Ivanisevic performance. He juiced 12 aces, won 91% of his first serves and knocked 33 winners past a heavy-legged, shellshocked Rosset, who knows a good thing when he sees it.

“I think Goran is a great player,” Rosset said.

Many agree. At Wimbledon, Ivanisevic was a couple of shots away from eliminating the debate. He littered the stately grounds of the All England Club with 209 aces and made it to his first Grand Slam tournament final before losing to Andre Agassi in five sets.

It was a narrow defeat for Ivanisevic, the product of one key double fault and a single shaky volley.

On a mostly routine first day in the Open, 11th-seeded Michael Stich defeated Olivier Delaitre in straight sets, the same route 13th-seeded Guy Forget used to bid adieu to Jim Grabb.

But top-seeded and No. 1-ranked Jim Courier didn’t exactly enjoy a rousing entry into the Open. Courier struggled past Alex O’Brien, 4-6, 6-1, 6-3, 7-6 (7-5), in a first-round match that lasted 3 hours 20 minutes.

At three minutes past midnight, on his fourth match point, Courier served an ace down the middle, ending a determined upset bid by O’Brien, 22, ranked No. 185. O’Brien was playing his first U.S. Open match as a wild card entry after winning the NCAA singles title at Stanford.

Most Ivanisevic observers consider Wimbledon his tour de force , at least up to now. Those same people have become accustomed to his wildly fluctuating concentration, his erratic play and sometimes who-cares manner.

There is a great deal of evidence of his erratic style. At 14, Ivanisevic was kicked out of the European junior championships for his behavior. His fines from umpire warnings can’t equal the Dodgers’ team payroll, but it’s in the same ballpark.

At the U.S. Open a couple of years ago, he acknowledged tanking a match against Darren Cahill, then recanted his confession when threatened with a huge fine. But at the urging of Coach Bob Brett, who used to tutor Boris Becker, Ivanisevic says he is changing.

“I still break rackets, but I do it in a positive way,” he said.

Rosset, the gold-medal winner at the Barcelona Olympics, didn’t have the mettle to hang in with Ivanisevic. Rosset lost the first set with three double faults in the last game, the final two in succession to end the set.

Rosset’s backhand landed eight feet past the baseline, giving Ivanisevic a break for 5-4 in the second set, which translated quickly into a two-set lead.

The only time Ivanisevic wavered even slightly was when he was up two breaks at 5-2 in the third set, by which time he had plenty of margin for error. That came in handy when Ivanisevic served for the match and double-faulted at break point.

But the next time he served, Ivanisevic coolly closed it out. There would be no going crazy this time.

Just in case, the patient said there are telltale symptoms.

“I start to rush. I walking like crazy man,” Ivanisevic said. “Just walk. I don’t know where. Like you running against somebody, somebody chasing you. Run and hit, hit and run.

“So that is the problem. Then I can’t start just running, running. But one day I say, ‘This is enough. You have to try to control this.’ And now I am good. I am not running anymore.”

U.S. Open Notes

Qualifier Todd Nelson plays Bryan Shelton in the first round today, ending a streak of 15 consecutive tournaments for which Nelson failed to qualify. Nelson, 31, of San Diego, ranked No. 338, lost in qualifying rounds at Guaruja, Brazil; the Australian Open; San Francisco; Philadelphia; Scottsdale, Ariz.; Key Biscayne, Fla.; Singapore; Tokyo; Hong Kong; the French Open; Queen’s Club; Wimbledon; Cincinnati and New Haven, Conn.

Top-seeded Jim Courier has been No. 1 for all but two weeks since bumping Stefan Edberg on Feb. 10 and isn’t comfortable being reminded that he hasn’t won a tournament since the French Open. “You hear a lot of doomsaying when you don’t win,” he said.

In the top matches today, Boris Becker plays Kevin Curren, Pete Sampras plays David DiLucia, Andre Agassi plays Mikael Pernfors under the lights, John McEnroe plays Michiel Schapers. Martina Navratilova plays Shaun Stafford after matches involving Jennifer Capriati, Gabriela Sabatini and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario.