TENNIS / CHAMPIONS CUP : Wheaton Punctures Pioline

Big-serving David Wheaton, the 6-foot-4 tower from Minnetonka, Minn., continued to bang his way back up the ladder of the men’s tennis rankings with an impressive first-round victory in the Newsweek Champions Cup here Monday.

Wheaton, once as high as No. 12 in the world shortly after his run to the 1991 Wimbledon semifinals, but now No. 31, beat Cedric Pioline of France, 6-3, 6-1.

Even though Pioline currently is ranked No. 55, Wheaton’s victory was no small achievement. Pioline lost the 1993 U.S. Open final to Pete Sampras and spent some time in the top 10 in the world, at No. 9, early in 1994. And it was Pioline who gave the United States a scare in the recent Davis Cup match in Florida, beating Todd Martin in the opening match and sending the United States into the doubles with a 1-1 tie.

Wheaton, a former Stanford star who hasn’t been in the U.S. Davis Cup picture for a couple of years, showed against Pioline that he still can be dominating with a serve-and-volley game, even on the medium-slow stadium hard court at the Hyatt Grand Champions.

“It’s important for me to serve and volley,” Wheaton said, “and I thought I served very well on the four break points he had against me. Had he made any of those, it might have been a different match.”

And had Wheaton not received some good luck, it might also have been a different match. With Pioline serving at 1-3 and 30-all in the second set, Wheaton hit a shot that clipped the net cord, popped up a few inches, then kind of dribbled along the top of the net before dropping over on Pioline’s side. Pioline, now facing a break point, slapped a lazy forehand into the net and quickly deflated like a punctured balloon in the last two games.

Actually, since his climb to No. 9 in January, 1994, Pioline’s entire game has resembled a punctured balloon. Last year, he went out in the first round of the Australian and Wimbledon, the second round of the French and the third round of the U.S. Open, where he had surprised the tennis world the year before. From a 51-26 match record in 1993, he went to 31-31 in ’94.

“It is tough to go up (in the rankings),” Pioline said. “But it is tougher to stay there. Now, everybody knows how you play, how you think, how you move.”

The only seeded player competing Monday, No. 13 Andrea Gaudenzi of Italy, got past Richard Fromberg of Australia, 2-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7-2). Fromberg served nine aces, but was outplayed in the tiebreaker.

In the evening session, attended by perhaps one-fifth of the 5,699 fans who bought tickets for the night, Austria’s Horst Skoff beat Russia’s Andrei Chesnokov, 7-5, 6-3, and Sweden’s Jonas Bjorkman, playing an exceptional match against a tough opponent, beat the Czech Republic’s Karel Novacek, 7-5, 6-2.

Bjorkman struggled slightly in the first set, serving for it twice before finally closing it out at 7-5. In the second set, he was so sharp that a frustrated Novacek drew a court warning for swearing loudly.

The Skoff-Chesnokov match featured one funny moment, and one ugly one.

At 4-4 of the first set, Chesnokov aced Skoff three times for 40-love. As he lined up for his try at ace No. 4, Skoff, feigning surrender, leaned back on his racket at the baseline, using it for a seat.

Chesnokov, seeing his helpless opponent, blooped in a 39 mile-an-hour serve, which Skoff returned with a bloop of his own, setting up a gentle game-winning smash by Chesnokov.

Earlier in the set, however, Skoff cursed angrily while requesting his towel, prompting a ball girl to leave the court in tears.