Capriati Can Make Her First Class : U.S. Open: After being upset by Patricia Hy, she will be in school Tuesday for opening day.

Jennifer Capriati, who at 16 seemed on the verge of taking the city by storm, fizzled out in the third round of the U.S. Open instead and had to come up with an explanation.

“Stuff happens,” she said.

True enough. But the fact that this particular stuff would happen to the No. 6-seeded player, that she would lose to Patricia Hy, the No. 36-ranked player in the world, 7-5, 6-4, well, that’s unexpected stuff happening.

But Capriati made sure it would happen by playing fairly miserably--no aces, three double faults, 11 winners and 30 unforced errors.

The final analysis?

“It is pretty disappointing,” Capriati said.

“You know, like it took awhile for it to sink in that I won the Olympics and it was so great, (and) it is taking a little while to sink in that I lost.

“I mean, I just, just, it is really, it is just a major disappointment for me. I don’t know if I am shocked. I mean, no, I am not really shocked. I mean, it is just disappointing.

Shock, disappointment, whatever, Hy (pronounced Hee) had not beaten Capriati in three matches, two of them at the U.S. Open.

The 27-year-old naturalized Canadian born in Cambodia said Capriati might have buckled under expectations to do well at the Open.

“I think Jennifer definitely had a lot of pressure on her because people expect her to win,” Hy said. “I mean, we walk on the court and the whole stadium, the whole grandstand was going to crumble down from the clapping. . . . I didn’t feel any pressure.”

As Hy goes on to meet Helena Sukova in the fourth round, Capriati returns to the Palmer Academy in Saddlebrook, Fla., where she will be a junior when school begins Tuesday. Few expected her to be there for the first day of classes.

Trailing, 4-1, in the first set, top-seeded Monica Seles won the last 11 games of her third-round match with Claudia Porwoick for a 6-4, 6-1 victory.

Meanwhile, Gabriela Sabatini starred in “How to Win a Match Without Really Playing Well.”

Here’s how: You take two shirts, three sets, 2 hours 33 minutes, hit serves that wouldn’t crack an eggshell, knock six double faults, blow a two-game lead in the last set and still walk off the court with a smile on your face.

Thus, the plot thickened as the women’s draw thinned, one day after third-seeded Martina Navratilova goofed up enough to find herself out of the tournament. Sabatini barely managed to avoid a similar fate, a couple of hours before Capriati could not.

Thanks to 55 unforced errors by Natalia Zvereva, Sabatini escaped the third round with a 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 victory.

“I don’t know why,” Sabatini said. “I think I played very well, but I don’t know what happened.”

There were 15 service breaks, eight by Sabatini, who had one ace, six double faults and scored only six volley winners even though she made 46 approaches to the net.