TENNIS / FRENCH OPEN : Courier Sends Tarango Packing, Then Gets Downright Antisocial

His toxic forehands relegated to the cozy confines of a small, outer court, Jim Courier breezed into the third round of the French Open on Friday, when there was as much attention paid to where he would be making his dinner plans as where he was playing his match.

The last Tarango in Paris, Jeff Tarango, lost a 3-hour 17-minute battle of big forehands with Courier, who posted a 6-1, 6-7 (7-2), 6-3, 7-5 victory, then found himself defending his decision not to attend the French Open Champions dinner Tuesday night.

In the birthplace of haute cuisine, the outrage was predictable. Certainly the mixture was volatile--a little tennis, a little food, a little formal thing for a few thousand of your closest friends and, voila!, instant controversy.

Courier explained how he could turn down a free meal: “I am here to play, I am not here to socialize.”

So while the socialization of Jim Courier is going to the back burner for a while, his day job is cooking right now.

Tarango, a tenacious left-hander from Stanford, said there wasn’t much Courier didn’t do.

“I thought he was pretty flawless,” Tarango said.

So was Pete Sampras, who finished off Marcos Ondruska, 7-5, 6-0, 6-3, in a rain-delayed second-round match held over from Thursday night. Though Sampras and Courier and Michael Stich won fairly easily, fifth-seeded Goran Ivanisevic wasn’t as fortunate. Last year’s Wimbledon finalist was eliminated by clay-court specialist Carlos Costa, 2-6, 6-2, 7-5, 6-3, although he went down the hard way--saving three match points.

As for Courier, it’s all looking fairly easy for him right now. He has lost only one set in three matches, that one taken by Tarango, who was slightly more disappointed than Courier to be scheduled for Court 2 instead of the larger Court 1 or Center Court.

“I wanted to play on the biggest court in the whole world,” said Tarango, who tried to amuse himself in unorthodox ways, such as signing an autograph at the end of one point and falling on one shoulder and turning around in a circle, a move patented by Curly of the Three Stooges.

Other than that, it wasn’t exactly fun and games to have to play Courier, who played his second match on a small court.

Courier was asked if he thinks that he should be scheduled to play on Center Court since he is the two-time defending champion.

“If I keep playing well, I’ll get out there eventually,” he said.

Tarango said he may have been helped against Courier because his best shot is his forehand, which he naturally hits cross-court and away from Courier’s own potent forehand.

Tarango had one last chance to get even in the fourth set. Courier served at 4-5, 0-30, but Tarango let up on a forehand and knocked it into the tape. After that, Courier pulled himself together and ended it convincingly.

All that was left was for him to explain his dinner plans for Tuesday night. It is the custom at the French Open for the International Tennis Federation’s dinner to honor the year’s top players.

There are going to be at least two empty seats since Courier isn’t going and Monica Seles is unable to attend because she is recovering from a stab wound.

“I am very honored to be named, but I am here to play,” Courier said.

The guy he plays next is Thomas Muster, a left-handed Austrian who strutted past Brad Gilbert in straight sets. Afterward, Gilbert said he was impressed by Muster’s energy level.

“The guy doesn’t even sit down on changeovers,” Gilbert said. “Whatever he has got in his water, I want some. I don’t know if it was his way of saying he could play 15 sets or what.”

Gratefully, the French Open remains the best-of-five sets, so the Courier-Muster match can last no longer than that. Muster said Courier is so effective, he is more of a machine than a player. Courier scoffed at the notion.

“I guess I will be looking in a mirror because Thomas is the same type,” he said. “I’m playing the ‘Blade Runner.’ ”

French Open Notes

She’s 15, she’s from Zagreb, Croatia, she hits a two-handed backhand, she goes to the Bollettieri Tennis Academy and, even though she’s a right-hander, Iva Majoli reminds many of Monica Seles. Majoli, ranked No. 43 and playing in her first French Open, will run straight into Steffi Graf in the fourth round. Graf needed 53 minutes to blast Laura Gildemeister, 6-2, 6-2, and set up an encounter with Majoli, a 6-0, 7-6 (7-5) winner over Sabine Hack. Besides Graf, other seeded women’s players who won were Conchita Martinez, Jennifer Capriati, Anke Huber, Magdalena Maleeva and Mary Pierce. Capriati, who defeated Florencia Labat, 6-0, 3-6, 6-4, will meet Pierce in the fourth round. Majoli said she is looking forward to playing Graf. “I think she is a great player, but the person I really like is Martina (Navratilova),” Majoli said. “I think she is a great player. . . . She is 37 (actually 36), so, I think she is the greatest player.” Majoli came to Bradenton, Fla., when her family emigrated from Croatia in 1990. Stanko Majoli, a taxi driver, is coaching his daughter along with Iva’s 21-year-old brother, Drago. As for being compared to Seles, Majoli said she doesn’t mind. “I didn’t mind because she is No. 1 and she is a great player,” Majoli said. “But I think it is great if you are yourself and if you are your person, not somebody else, even if that somebody is like the best.”