Edberg’s Hopes Vanish in Loss to Fellow Swede : U.S. Open: Former champion thrown by windy conditions and falls to Bjorkman, 6-4, 6-4, 6-0.

For 28-year-old Stefan Edberg, winner of six Grand Slam titles in a career that seems to be losing steam, the question has been whether he has one last one in him. Sunday night at the U.S. Open, the answer was blowing in the wind.

Seeded No. 5 and playing before a full house on the Stadium Court, Edberg was hit by a tornado named Jonas Bjorkman, a 22-year-old ranked 71st and a Swedish neighbor of Edberg’s in the city of Vaxjo, where they frequently practice together when they are both home.

That meant that Edberg’s 6-4, 6-4, 6-0 loss not only embarrassed him internationally, but meant that he’s not even the best on his block.

Literally and figuratively, Edberg got blown out. Winds that swirled around the Stadium and Grandstand sent temperatures dipping into the high 50s and left certain players baffled by it.

It had been a factor in No. 1 Pete Sampras’ 4-6, 6-2, 6-4, 6-3 struggle against unheralded Roger Smith of the Bahamas in the afternoon, and it was a major factor for Edberg, whose high-toss serve-and-volley game gets badly disrupted by such things.

“The wind makes it more difficult,” said Edberg, who fell to the ground on a volley attempt late in the first set and who shanked a second serve 50 feet wide on set point of the second set. “He plays serve and volley, too, but he did it a lot better than I did tonight.

“The weather is windy, chilly, and the guy probably had his Christmas tonight. He was hitting everything and it was going in.”

Edberg, who will play in a Davis Cup semifinal against the United States in Sweden this month and who won the U.S. Open in 1991 and ‘92, will turn 29 in January.

“This is the last chance of the year for a Grand Slam, so I’m disappointed,” he said. “Other tournaments have been OK, but, recently, the Grand Slams have been terrible.”

This Grand Slam tournament is left with only six seeded men in the round of 16. Besides Sampras, who didn’t take the lead in his match against Smith until a full hour into it, other seeded men playing and winning Sunday were No. 4 Michael Stich of Germany and No. 14 Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia.

Other advances were made by Karel Novacek of the Czech Republic, who saved three match points in the third set of a five-set match; newcomer Joern Renzenbrink of Germany, who won in straight sets; doubles specialist Javier Frana of Argentina, who made his best Grand Slam advance yet when he won in five sets, and Jaime Yzaga of Peru, who took out Cedric Pioline of France, a finalist last year, in five sets.

Among the women, No. 2 Arantxa Sanchez Vicario of Spain, No. 5 Kimiko Date of Japan and No. 8 Gabriela Sabatini of Argentina all won. Date struggled in three sets against Leila Meskhi of the Georgia Republic.

In the other women’s match played Sunday, California Ginger Helgeson of Alpine, 25 miles east of San Diego, had Edberg-like problems with the wind in her evening test on the Grandstand Court and lost to Wimbledon semifinalist Gigi Fernandez, 6-3, 6-4.

“My toss was going everywhere, and I just couldn’t find my rhythm,” Helgeson said.

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Today’s featured match will pit Michael Chang against Andre Agassi.

Agassi leads the series, 5-3.

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In addition to Gigi Fernandez, the only other American woman remaining is Zina Garrison Jackson, who will play top-seeded Steffi Graf today.

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The top-seeded men’s doubles team of Byron Black and Jason Stark was upset in the third round by Nicklas Kulti and Magnus Larsson of Sweden, 7-5, 6-3.

That made it a very difficult day for Black, a former USC star who also lost a singles match to Stich.