Another Day of Surprises Claims Many : Wimbledon: No. 3 Edberg and No. 5 Courier are most prominent upset victims.

Swede-turned-Londoner Stefan Edberg arrived at Wimbledon with a No. 3 seeding and the memories of two Wimbledon championships. He didn’t figure he’d be going home Thursday . . . to stay.

But that’s where Edberg will be, at home and at a loss to explain how he was beaten by 113th-ranked Kenneth Carlsen of Denmark, 6-7 (8-6), 6-7 (8-6), 6-2, 6-4, 6-4.

As it turns out, he wasn’t the only seeded player departing the premises prematurely. American Jim Courier, a finalist last year and seeded fifth this time around, dropped his second-round match to France’s Guy Forget, 3-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Forget, a virtual no-show on the tour because of a knee injury, had seen his world ranking drop to 1,130. Had it not been for a ruling that allows an injured player to keep his protected ranking--in Forget’s case, 24th--the Frenchman would have been back home in Neuchatel, Switzerland, channel surfing.

Instead, he bounced Courier, who has never been entirely comfortable playing on grass. But this?

“I told (Forget), if I have to lose to somebody and give them my bonus point, I’d just as soon as him have them,” Courier said. “He played well. He deserved to win.”

But the daily upset binge didn’t stop with Edberg and Courier. Eleventh-seeded Petr Korda of the Czech Republic lost to Germany’s Markus Zoecke, 4-6, 6-7 (7-5), 6-3, 6-2, 6-4. Zoecke was ranked 104th.

Meanwhile, Katarina Maleeva of Bulgaria, seeded 16th in the women’s draw, dropped her match to Indonesia’s Yayuk Basuki, 5-7, 7-6 (7-3), 6-4.

The defeats sent the Wimbledon seeding committee running for partial cover, especially since the sport’s most prestigious tournament has now lost three men seeded among the top five--Edberg, Courier and No. 2 Michael Stich--and its No. 1 woman, the supposedly invincible Steffi Graf.

It could have been worse. No. 8 Sergi Bruguera of Spain, winner of the last two French Open tournaments, needed nearly 4 1/2 hours to beat Australian Patrick Rafter, 7-6 (7-4), 3-6, 4-6, 7-5, 13-11. Rafter, ranked 21st, is no pushover. Then again, no one compares him to Rod Laver, either.

This is what Wimbledon has been reduced to: a grassy free-for-all. Edberg, Courier, Maleeva gone on Thursday. Stich, No. 8 Natalia Zvereva, No. 12 Anke Huber, No. 14 Marc Rosset and No. 16 Arnaud Boetsch on Wednesday. Graf on Tuesday. Cedric Pioline, seeded No. 15, and, on the women’s side, No. 15 Sabine Hack, were both ousted on Monday.

Suddenly, if you can string a racket and know the difference between ad court and Margaret Court you can win this thing.

“Obviously, it has changed this year,” Edberg said of the upsets galore. “Whether it is going to start a trend, I cannot tell you.”

With another day of unlikely losses, the totals stand as follows: among seeded players, seven men and five women are history.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. For instance, Edberg’s game--big on serve and volley--was considered good enough to get him to at least the quarterfinals, if not the semifinals. He hadn’t lost to an unseeded player since 1986, hadn’t failed to reach the third round since 1984.

None of that mattered Thursday. For only the third time in his career, Edberg took a two-set lead and somehow lost in five sets.

“I don’t know what to say--I had my chances,” Edberg said with something of a shrug.

It is becoming a common theme during Wimbledon’s Week 1. Opportunities lost. Just ask Courier, Graf and the rest of them.

Edberg led in the fourth set, 2-0, but botched the next game and that was that. Carlsen, ranked as low as 1,036 three years ago, took advantage of the opening and never glanced back, except for one brief, late moment. That’s when the Swedish star fought off four match points to hold serve and close the gap to 4-5 in the third set.

So much for valiant comebacks. Edberg couldn’t win a point in the next game and left the court looking for his car keys.

“I fought for every point out there,” Edberg said. “I didn’t take my chances. That’s the story.”

Of course, it didn’t hurt Carlsen’s chances that Edberg wasn’t much of a serving threat. He used to have one, especially a second serve that did all sorts of wonderful things.

Not Thursday. Carlsen recorded 14 aces, Edberg two.

“Maybe he lost a little bit of his concentration and I got into the match in the third set and won that very big,” said Carlsen, who was playing in only his sixth Grand Slam event. “Then in the fourth set he was pretty tired. He had some chances to win that one.”

The victory was Carlsen’s first against a seeded player in a Grand Slam event, and only his eighth overall. As if it matters these days at Wimbledon.

The victory by Forget was another matter altogether. An elite player before his injury, Forget underwent knee surgery last September and played only a few matches before making his way to Wimbledon under protected status. He beat Doug Flach in the first round and then found himself matched against Courier. By ranking, it was the worst mismatch in history: No. 7 vs. No. 1,130.

“I don’t know what to expect,” Forget said. “When I came in here, I had a few wins and I looked at Wimbledon just trying to win one match. When I saw the draw, I thought, ‘It’s a tough one but you never know . . . just try to play your best.’ I knew I could have lost and I could fly home tomorrow.”

Later, Forget admitted what almost everyone in the stands had already figured at match’s beginning.

“I didn’t think I could win,” he said. “But I knew I had the potential of doing it.”

So what else is new at Wimbledon this year? Seeds be damned. Grab a racket, do the improbable.

“It’s a dangerous surface--grass,” Courier said.

No need for the reminder.