Korda's at a Loss Over Early Exit

By LISA DILLMAN

Sept. 3, 1998 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

NEW YORK —

Petr Korda pulled another trick out of his repertoire Wednesday in the first round at the U.S. Open.

He made himself disappear.

Not that the erratic Czech hasn’t done this before in New York. He lost in the first round at the Open four other times, as recently as 1993. Last year, he disappeared as well--one round after upsetting Pete Sampras--and pulled himself off the court in the quarterfinals . . . because of a cold.

This time, the fourth-seeded Korda lost to qualifier Bernd Karbacher of Germany after winning the first set and holding a 2-0 lead in the second. Karbacher, ranked No. 155 in the world, turned the match around dramatically, winning, 2-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-1, in 2 hours, 8 minutes.

“I was struggling,” said Korda, who committed 57 unforced errors. “Whatever I did today, I did wrong.”

Karbacher, a quarterfinalist here in 1994, has overcome numerous obstacles in the last two years, including a career-threatening heart problem. In 1997, he learned he had myocarditis, a treatable inflammation of the heart muscle, and missed nearly five months of action.

“I was kind of scared because there are some sports athletes in Germany and in Europe, they had pretty big problems with that,” said Karbacher, once ranked as high as No. 22 in the world. “But the doctor gave me a lot of confidence it was going to be better.”

He had to drop to the minor leagues of tennis, the challenger level. And his ranking remained low, forcing him to qualify for the French Open this year. Clearly, this was his biggest victory since returning to the tour.

Korda became the biggest casualty thus far at the Open. One seeded player on the women’s side was eliminated: 16th-seeded Ai Sugiyama of Japan retired because of a sprained left ankle in the first set while leading Gala Leon Garcia of Spain, 3-2.

The day was not especially hot or humid, but Mariano Puerta of Argentina, suffering from cramps in his right leg, had to be helped off the court in the fourth set by the tour trainer and his opponent, 10th-seeded Carlos Moya of Spain.

Moya, the French Open champion, won the first two sets and dropped the third. The match was tied, 4-4, in the fourth when Puerta called for medical assistance and retired.

Moya will play Michael Chang in the second round. Although Chang is not seeded here, Moya realized it will be a tough test, saying: “Chang is always very dangerous.”

Chang ruled himself out of the Davis Cup semifinals against Italy later this month in Milwaukee, joining Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras and Jim Courier. The only American player committed to participate so far is Todd Martin.

“For me, it’s probably not in my best interest to play at this time, just to be able to go out and make use of the time, to get back to being 100% healthy,” said Chang, who has been injured most of 1998.

U.S. Open Notes

The patch flap involving Venus Williams has had its humorous moments. Williams was fined $100 for not wearing a Corel WTA patch in her first-round match on Tuesday. Fines will increase and could eventually range as high as $25,000, if she fails to comply. Of the escalating fines, Bart McGuire, CEO of the Women’s Tennis Assn., said, joking: “Maybe we can call it the Williams’ tour.” Leland Hardy, a business advisor to the Williams family, said: “Mr. [Richard] Williams has decided for several of his own reasons that she would not wear the patch and he would not change his mind.” Patches are worn on the sleeve, but Williams’ Reebok-designed outfit is a yellow halter top. Dave Fogelson of Reebok said that the move was not designed to push sales.

Top-seeded Pete Sampras and Martina Hingis had matches wiped out Wednesday night by rain and wind. . . . Jacco Eltingh, trying to become the first man in the Open era to win a doubles Grand Slam, withdrew from the Open and returned to his home in the Netherlands to join his wife and newborn son, Lars. He was supposed to play doubles with Paul Haarhuis of the Netherlands. Haarhuis and Eltingh won the French Open and Wimbledon, and Eltingh won the Australian Open with Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Today’s Featured Matches

MEN

* Pete Sampras (1) vs. Paul Goldstein

* Patrick Rafter (3) vs. Hernan Gumy

* Greg Rusedski (6) vs. Bohdan Ulihrach

* Andre Agassi (8) vs. Guillaume Raoux

* Karol Kucera (9) vs. Jerome Golmard

* Jonas Bjorkman (12) vs. Jonathan Stark

* Goran Ivanisevic (14) vs. Todd Martin

WOMEN

* Martina Hingis (1) vs. Iva Majoli