U.S. OPEN NOTES : Becker Finally Gets Breather, Wins Easily

Boris Becker, who has spent more time on the Stadium court the last three days than the people who built it, advanced easily to the third round. The fourth-seeded German, who waded through a two-day, nearly five-hour first round, beat Jakob Hlasek, a Czech who now lives in Switzerland, 6-2, 6-2, 6-4.

“I served better today than I did yesterday,” Becker said, “And I had a guy who likes short points.”

Actually, Hlasek didn’t like them at all.

“I watched him a little yesterday, against Andrei Cherkasov, and he was playing from the back,” Hlasek said. “I was hoping he would do that again today. But he didn’t, probably because he was tired and he wanted shorter points. I think he is the most dangerous when he is like that.”

Becker’s late scheduling start on Wednesday night, compounded by two rain delays during his match, means that, even though he will have a day off today, he will still have to play five matches in eight days to go all the way through the final.

Becker, still steaming about the schedule, told German reporters that Jim Courier, in the same half of the draw as Becker, had been given favored treatment.

“I requested an earlier start, and nine out of 10 times I get what I want,” Becker said. “But this is not Germany.”

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Jim Courier has coasted into the third round. Friday’s 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 victory over Michael Joyce of Los Angeles took 1 hour 39 minutes. Courier has lost only 12 games in two matches.

“I am mentally in the groove,” the top-seeded Courier said. “And if I’m mentally there, then the physical part seems to follow.”

Joyce, who got in the main draw as a qualifier, is 20 years old and a former U.S. Tennis Assn. boys’ 16 and 18 champion.

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Steffi Graf, Conchita Martinez, Gabriela Sabatini, Jana Novotna and Mary Pierce, seeded Nos. 1, 4, 5, 8 and 13, respectively, made it through the third round of the women’s singles, with Graf advancing by default when her opponent, Judith Weisner of Austria, withdrew with an upper respiratory condition.

Two other seeded women, Anke Huber and Amanda Coetzer, were taken out, Huber by Kimiko Date of Japan and Coetzer by 17-year-old high school student Lindsay Davenport of Murietta.

The amateur Davenport, who still has a year left at Murietta Valley High, got one round further than her second round here last year when she beat the 15th-seeded South African, 6-1, 6-2. Date beat Huber, 6-3, 6-2.

Sabatini had a tough fight on the Stadium court in the evening session, outlasting former Pepperdine star Ginger Helgesen, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4.

Helgesen, a week shy of her 25th birthday and a resident of San Diego, got within two points of breaking back at 5-4 of the final set, but missed a backhand and had Sabatini pass her on match point.

“It was disappointing, because I felt like I could have won,” Helgesen said.

Pierce, the subject of a recent Sports Illustrated article about how she was abused by her tennis-fanatic father, Jim Pierce, who has since been banned from all her events, continues to draw large crowds and travel with an entourage of friends and bodyguards.

At a recent news conference, she was asked if it seemed strange not to have her father around.

“Strange?” she laughed. “Actually, it is kind of nice.”