TENNIS / FRENCH OPEN : Majoli, Latest Teen Sensation, Gets a Lesson From a Former One, Graf

The French Open got a little younger Sunday with the arrival of 15-year-old Iva Majoli in the fourth round, who quickly jumped into the role of the kid put to bed early by the baby-sitter, this time played by Steffi Graf.

History has taught us that there is always room in tennis for the next precocious, free-swinging teen-ager, and the newest one is from Croatia, all 5 feet 8 of her and mouth full of braces.

Majoli had her hands full of Graf, who knows how to recognize teen sensations because she used to be one herself. At 23, she also knows how to beat them.

In swirling winds and occasional rain, Graf moved stridently into the quarterfinals with a 6-4, 7-6 (7-3) decision over Majoli, who showed she could become the next teen sensation in the women’s game.

For Majoli, it was an impressive, if not altogether satisfying French Open debut. She impressed even Graf by slamming two-handed backhands at increasing ridiculous angles, accompanied by grunts that would make you-know-who happy.

Remind you of anybody, Steffi?

“You want to hear Seles now, right?” Graf said. “Kind of. She does, in a way. She hits the ball (the same way) especially her backhand. Yes, she does go for the shots, especially for the lines, as much as Monica does.

“She played a great, great match. I really have to say. I played her in February and she wasn’t really close. If she continues improving like that, I think she can be very, very tough to play against.”

A native of Zagreb in the former Yugoslavia, Majoli and her family live in Sarasota, Fla., in the Bollettieri Tennis Academy, after emigrating when Iva was 12.

If that sounds like a familiar path, one that Seles followed before, it’s obvious that there are a lot of similarities, even down to her bleached blond hair held in place by enough clips to set off a metal detector.

As Seles did, Majoli downplays the role of Nick Bollettieri in her coaching, referring to him as “a friend.”

Graf, who was down a service break near the start of the second set, moves on to meet Jennifer Capriati in the quarterfinals. Capriati defeated Mary Pierce, 6-4, 7-6 (7-5), in a rain-interrupted match.

Pierce lost her serve six times and double-faulted on match point to lose to Capriati in the fourth round here for the second consecutive year.

Pierce said she thought her father, Jim, watched the match on television. The elder Pierce was banned from Roland Garros and his credentials confiscated for creating a disturbance during Pierce’s match Friday.

For Graf, it will mean that she is once again working her way through the teens--Capriati is 17--and the result is that she is getting in touch with her own age. Sometimes it doesn’t feel so good.

“Sometimes I do feel old, but thank God that doesn’t happen too often,” Graf said. “Women’s tennis does seem to have the tendency to get younger and younger, and I don’t know if it’s a very good direction, but if they are that good, then they should be there already.”

Majoli said her goal is to break into the top five in rankings by the end of the year. She is No. 43 now. When Seles turned 16, she was No. 6 in the world. Majoli turns 16 in August. She can’t copy everything Seles did, even if many expect her to.

“I don’t mind too much,” Majoli said. “When I first came to Florida, many people said that I look like her, I play like her, but I think it is great to be just yourself, not to copy somebody.”

Arantxa Sanchez Vicario and Jana Novotna won their matches to set up a meeting in the quarterfinals, as did Mary Joe Fernandez and Gabriela Sabatini.

Michael Stich didn’t make it to the quarterfinals and a showdown with either top-seeded Jim Courier or Thomas Muster. Goran Prpic, a 29-year-old veteran clay-court specialist ranked No. 181, upset the ninth-seeded and No. 10-ranked Stich with surprising ease, 6-3, 6-2, 1-6, 6-2.

Courier didn’t get a chance to play his scheduled fourth-round match against Muster. It was postponed as they walked on the court at 7:15 p.m. when it was decided that there wasn’t a reasonable chance to finish it before dark.

Courier got a day off because of several rain delays coupled with Richard Krajicek’s 4-hour 11-minute fourth-round victory over Carlos Costa. Krajicek, who will try his serve-and-volley style against Karel Novacek in the quarterfinals, outlasted Costa, 7-5, 3-6, 6-3, 5-7, 10-8.

Afterward, Krajicek said there is no reason why anyone should give a small chance to a player with a big serve on a clay court.

“Some clay courts when it rains, you just cannot kill the ball,” Krajicek said. “It’s a never-ending story. But here, it’s not like that.

“Edberg came pretty close (in 1989). It’s possible to do well and maybe even win.”

French Open Notes

Pete Sampras said Andre Agassi sent him a fax to apologize for a remark he made last week when he said he didn’t think the world was ready “for a No. 1 (player) who looks like he just swung out of a tree.” Sampras said Agassi explained that he was only kidding when he made the statement last weekend at a Nike exhibition on the outskirts of Paris. “I knew Andre didn’t really mean what he had said,” Sampras said. . . . Best excuse: The top one so far came from Goran Ivanisevic, a second-round loser to Carlos Costa: “The court was too big. That was the problem. I run too much.” . . . Sampras has entered the Volvo/Los Angeles tournament Aug. 2-8 at UCLA. Michael Stich and Michael Chang are also entered.