TENNIS AUSTRALIAN OPEN : Courier, Seles Breeze; Medvedev Steals Show

Jim Courier’s 10th consecutive victim in the Australian Open, dating to last year’s championship run, crumbled with only a mild fuss.

Monica Seles’ 17th patsy in a row, going back to the first of her two titles, shrank away more meekly today.

But of all the winners and losers, none brightened the day more than charismatic Ukrainian teen-ager Andrei Medvedev, who exited laughing.

Courier, the top-seeded male, won his third match this week without dropping a set, defeating Guillaume Raoux, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4. The Frenchman had all the talent to keep the match close, steady ground strokes and a decent serve, but no serious weapons to really threaten Courier.

“I’m actually hoping it gets hot. I like it,” Courier said, unfazed by the 108-degree courtside heat. “I’m from Florida. I’m used to the heat, and it’s to my advantage.”

Seles was not challenged, beating Patty Fendick, 6-1, 6-0, in 47 minutes. It was hardly enough time to break a sweat, even in the heat. In Seles’ three matches in the tournament, she has won 36 games and lost six.

“The first two matches were OK, but now I’m feeling as well as I wanted,” said Seles, who next plays Nathalie Tauziat. The Frenchwoman complained about Seles’ grunting at Wimbledon and said she would complain again here if Seles keeps it up.

“She never said ‘hi’ to me,” Seles said, discussing her indifferent relationship with Tauziat, who defeated Nanne Dahlman of Finland, 6-2, 6-2. “The only player I’ve talked to about grunting is Martina.”

But if those matches lacked drama, the departure of 18-year-old Medvedev after his 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-5) loss to seventh-seeded Petr Korda was nothing short of entertaining. The final point came on a net cord by Korda that barely trickled over out of Medvedev’s reach.

“I think I deserved to lose this match on the net cord,” said Medvedev, who wore a Chicago Bulls cap. “I played a very, very bad match. Really, if I do the net cord, I wouldn’t even take it. I would say, ‘Let’s play let.’ Sometimes it happens to me, sometimes it happens to somebody else. But today it was very good. It was like a Tyson punch, boom, the end.”

The 6-foot-4 Medvedev berated himself for “ridiculous” and “absolutely wrong” tennis, playing to Korda’s strengths. And he knew he was in trouble from the start.

“On the warm-up, I was feeling guilty,” he said.

And he didn’t blame the officials, even though he questioned some calls.

“I question the call, and if the umpire says, ‘Yes,’ that’s fine,” he said. “It just doesn’t matter. They are also human people. They can make mistakes. Let’s say if I don’t make mistakes on the court, then I would be asking from the linesmen to do no mistakes also. But I am doing them so much that compared to me they are just angels.”

In other matches, American Chris Garner, a qualifier ranked No. 220, defeated Todd Witsken, who had upset No. 9 Richard Krajicek, 6-1, 6-1, 4-6, 4-6, 6-4; and unseeded Julie Halard defeated No. 16 Zina Garrison-Jackson, 6-4, 7-5.