FRENCH OPEN / MEN : The Reign in Spain Is Mainly on the Clay

Alberto Berasategui is the latest clay court specialist from Spain’s deep reserve to arrive in Paris with a wicked topspin and a resolve to win.

Following countryman Sergi Bruguera, Berasategui advanced to the semifinals of the French Open Wednesday with an efficient 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 victory over fifth-seeded Goran Ivanisevic.

Like Bruguera, Berasategui has yet to lose a set in reaching his first Grand Slam tournament semifinal round. Berasategui has played only 12 sets in six matches, having won twice when opponents retired because of pulled stomach muscles.

He will play Magnus Larsson of Sweden, who saved six match points in the third set, then blew past German teen-ager Henrik Dreekmann, 3-6, 6-7 (7-1), 7-6 (7-3), 6-0, 6-1, in Wednesday’s other quarterfinal match.

But most of the attention was on Berasategui’s upset of the last remaining seeded player in the men’s lower bracket. The hard-serving Ivanisevic had a great opportunity to reach the final at Roland Garros Stadium, yet seemed to give it away.

Last year, Ivanisevic routed Berasategui, 6-3, 6-3, 6-2, in the second round of the French Open in their only other meeting.

Berasategui, whose second-round appearance last year was his best previous Grand Slam performance, has an unusual grip that has all the tennis technicians talking. He uses a severe backhand grip to hit forehands, a shot that often confounds opponents.

To make the shot, Berasategui twists his arm awkwardly, with his palm on the underside of the grip, and hits the ball with the same face of the racket as with his backhand.

“If I played like that, the ball would be in my shoes,” said Imanol Bollegui, Berasategui’s childhood coach.

Berasategui started using the grip when he was a 9-year-old playing in Arrigorriaga, a village in the northwestern Basque region of Spain. He has stuck with it because it seems to work.

In the end, it was Ivanisevic who could not get a grip.

“He didn’t have to do anything--nothing,” Ivanisevic said. “It was a disgusting game. I never played like that in my life.”

Ivanisevic has advanced past the quarterfinals in only two Grand Slam events, but was playing his seventh quarterfinal match. Despite his experience, he was as flat as a crepe on a boiling day in Paris.

The left-handed Croatian was impatient, playing into Berasategui’s game. Ivanisevic’s big serve deserted him with his shot selection. Even when he had an open court at the net, Ivanisevic could not convert. He had 69 unforced errors.

“He was a little bit nervous, but I gave him everything,” Ivanisevic said. “I gave him a nice present.”

Berasategui gladly accepted the gift as he stayed on the baseline, content to watch his opponent make mistake after mistake.

“I thought it was going to be much harder for me,” the Spaniard said. “I thought the key was my (service) return.”

All it took for Berasategui to gain the advantage was a break in the seventh game of the first set. Ivanisevic hit a forehand into the net, then sent a ball long.

From that juncture, Berasategui never wavered. And the more Ivanisevic failed to volley with confidence, the more he got into trouble.

Berasategui even ended it on a second-serve ace, something Ivanisevic might have done had he played his game.

Dreekmann, 19, looked as if his incredible run at Roland Garros would continue when he dominated the first two sets. Then it quickly ended.

Larsson’s comeback was unremarkable, considering Dreekmann’s total collapse, and midway through the fourth set it was evident the German was going down.

After fending off the match points with clutch serving, Larsson won 11 consecutive games, including the third-set tiebreaker. He lost only six points in the fourth set and ended with 19 aces.

“I didn’t know what to do after the third set,” Dreekmann said. “I was only thinking of the six match points I had, and then the fourth set was gone.”

So was Dreekmann.

Tennis Notes

Martina Navratilova and Mark Woodforde of Australia lost to Natalia Medvedeva of Ukraine and Paul Haarhuis of the Netherlands, 6-7 (7-2), 6-4, 7-5, in the third round of mixed doubles, ousting Navratilova completely from her final French Open. . . . After losing in the third round of women’s singles, Lindsay Davenport said she could hardly wait to return to her friends at Murrieta Valley High. But wait she will, because she and Lisa Raymond of Wayne, Pa., advanced to the women’s doubles semifinals with a 6-1, 6-0 victory over Nicole Provis of Australia and Elna Reinach of South Africa.