Two Familiar Faces Take Early Bows : Tennis: Shriver loses to Davenport and Lendl defaults in second-round matches at U.S. Open.

With grace and a grimace, the old gave way to the new Thursday on Stadium Court at the U.S. Open. The court that has launched so many great careers became, on this day, all but a graveyard for two of them.

In 1978, at 16, Pam Shriver turned the tennis world on its ear by serving and volleying her way into the U.S. Open final, losing only then to Chris Evert. Thursday, at 32, before a half-full stadium of half-interested spectators, Shriver was sent packing in 53 minutes, including a 19-minute first set, by 18-year-old Lindsay Davenport of Murrieta. The score was 6-1, 6-2. Shriver double faulted on match point.

Starting in 1982, at 22, all the way through 1989, Ivan Lendl reached the final of the U.S. Open. He won in ‘85, ’86 and ’87. Thursday, at 34, Lendl walked off the Stadium Court with a sore back, defaulting his second-round match to Bernd Karbacher of Germany while trailing, two sets to love and 1-0 in the third. Lendl had held a 5-0 lead in the second set and squandered nine set points before losing in a 7-5 tiebreaker.

Now, like the old Kingston Trio song about riding the MTA in Boston, the question is: Will they ever return?

Shriver addressed that question gracefully and emotionally. Lendl grimaced and groused and did his best to not address it at all.

Asked if this had been her last appearance in the Open, Shriver said, “I think there is a very strong chance, but I don’t know. No big announcement here. I am just saying I will be surprised if I get out there again for singles. I’ll be very surprised.”

After hitting only 10 winners--and only two volley winners--and after double faulting on match point, Shriver shook Davenport’s hand, gave the young player a pat on the back and deflated into her courtside chair.

Behind her, the 10- and 11-year-old autograph seekers squealed for Davenport’s signature. None sought out Shriver, but then, none of them were even born when Shriver was having her big years on the tour.

Eventually, as she usually does, Shriver gathered her composure, signed a few autographs for the youngsters on the perimeter of the Davenport cluster, tossed her racket to a stunned youngster in the first row and marched out, side by side, with Davenport.

Just as she reached the exit, she stopped, took off her sunglasses and took one last, long look around the place. Hers appeared to be the actions of somebody who didn’t expect to be back, at least not in the same circumstances.

Asked about that moment later, she said, “Yeah. That was a little bit tough.”

Then she paused for a long time, facial expressions telling all, until the tension was broken by somebody joking that she would have had a tough time collecting a keepsake sprig of grass, as Martina Navratilova had done on her final exit from Wimbledon’s Centre Court this year.

If this was a farewell, Shriver did her best to keep it light and informative. She praised Davenport both for her tennis skills and for her handling of all the off-court pressures suddenly coming her way as America’s current top female player. And she even dished out a dose of perspective while talking about Davenport’s parents, Wink and Ann.

“I love her parents,” Shriver said. “I’ve never met her parents, but the fact that I don’t know who they are, I think is terrific. I mean, she has to be the first person in the top 10 whose parents I’ve never met, and I’m crazy about them.”

Shriver said that she would probably start next season playing singles in Australia, and would continue to play doubles, where she has excelled with 22 Grand Slam event titles.

“But it is a long time from January to the U.S. Open,” she said.

“I’ve had a great career, and I’ve never lost sight of all the good things,” she said. “The expectations were never that great, anyway, because I’ve got a lot of limitations in my game. But you guys know that. You’ve watched me.”

Lendl’s departure with an injury was his second in a row. Last year, he left while playing Neil Borwick of Australia, the same player he beat in the first round this year. Afterward, any suggestion that this might be it here for Lendl was greeted with evasion or debate.

Question: Forty years from now, when you want to sit with your grandchildren and tell them about your U.S. Open experience, what will stand out, what will be the one?

Answer: Who told you I would want to tell them?

Q. Just in case you decide to, what will you tell them?

A. I will tell them that I am 74 years old and I don’t remember anything.

So if Thursday was the end, or if he even had a moment’s inkling it might be, he wasn’t saying. He said the back injury was not career-threatening, that he expected doctors to be able to figure out how to correct it and that, if they do, he very well might keep going for a long time.

One thing is sure. Someday soon, both will know that it’s over, that it’s time to find a real job. Shriver will call a news conference that will turn into a party with 10,000 of her closest friends. Lendl will tell his wife and go play a round of golf.

And some day, they will probably tell their respective grandchildren that one of their favorite places in the world was the Stadium Court at the U.S. Open, but that there was this Thursday in 1994, when they were playing on it, and. . . .