Ivanisevic Does His Best to Entertain : U.S. Open: Croatian wins and comes up with multiple ways of adding levity to a tournament missing bright lights.

He looked like a Croatian version of Gilligan--wearing a goofy smile, an even goofier floppy fisherman’s hat and a bright red shirt in the interview room.

Here was three-time Wimbledon finalist Goran Ivanisevic, the perfect antidote to a tennis hangover. Something was needed to offset the general malaise hitting the U.S. Open one day after the No. 1 player, Pete Sampras, and the two-time defending champion, Patrick Rafter, exited because of injuries.

Ivanisevic is a reliable source. Last year, he enlivened an otherwise ordinary day here when he revealed that someone sent him an early birthday present, handcuffs and chocolate body paint.

This time, it was tamer stuff after he defeated qualifier Ville Liukko of Finland, 7-5, 7-6 (7-5), 4-6, 6-2, in the first round Wednesday. Ivanisevic had 27 aces and double-faulted 15 times.

These days, Ivanisevic is simply trying to handcuff his psyche. His often-fragile confidence took a hard hit after Wimbledon, as he won only two matches in five tournaments before the Open.

“I am [struggling],” he said. “But if I can put my game together, now I have to win six more matches. It’s a long way, you know. It’s like Mt. Everest. You never know with me. It just clicks and the game is there.”

He was just getting warmed up.

Ivanisevic started talking about his alternate personalities. The good Goran, the bad Goran and the in-between Goran. Sometimes, all three surface in the same match.

“Actually, in the match I find out,” Ivanisevic said. “There’s a couple of guys there. I have a little chat, ‘Which one is going to go now?’ Sometimes we fight: ‘I go.’ ‘You go.’

“Today in the end was a good one, you know.”

Suddenly, the line of questioning veered toward Sybil territory.

Do you give these voices, these guys, different names?

“No, it’s just me. It’s just me, me and me,” he said.

“Today was only two. One guy stepped in in the middle of the second set, started to hit,” he said. “OK, I won that set. Then in the third set, [I] just was pulling him [out], ‘Sit down, relax, man.’ He didn’t listen.

“Then fourth set, you know, I just came in. I said, ‘OK, now let me finish this.’ ”

If he wins, everybody wins.

“Oh, we all get the trophy,” he said. “I get the trophy and I buy another two trophies for whoever is there.”

Ivanisevic was simply having fun. He said he enjoyed making the room of journalists laugh. “I’m not a case to go to the psychologist or any kind of thing,” he said. “I am the best psychologist for myself.”

Although Ivanisevic is unseeded, he is in the vastly weakened upper half of the draw, now minus Sampras and Rafter. The other remaining seeded players in his half are No. 5 Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil, No. 7 Todd Martin, No. 9 Greg Rusedski of Britain, No. 14 Tommy Haas of Germany and No. 16 Nicolas Lapentti of Ecuador.

Haas defeated Australian Open finalist Thomas Enqvist of Sweden, 6-2, 6-4, 7-6 (8-6). He survived despite suffering a pulled hip muscle in the third set.

“I didn’t think about it at the time,” Haas said. “It’s bothering me now a little bit. I think it’s just normal.”

Only one seeded player on the men’s side was dismissed. Magnus Norman of Sweden defeated No. 17 Felix Mantilla of Spain, 1-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-4.

The men’s draw, which appeared to be in such disarray after the departures of Sampras and Rafter, regained some form when third-seeded Yevgeny Kafelnikov beat Max Mirnyi of Belarus, 7-5, 6-1, 6-7 (7-5), 6-3. That meant a final between Kafelnikov and second-seeded Andre Agassi, which would be a rematch of Kafelnikov’s recent 6-1, 6-4 rout of Agassi in the Montreal final, remained a strong possibility. Both players appear to be at the top of their games.

In women’s second-round matches, No. 3 Venus Williams defeated Anne-Gaelle Sidot of France, 6-4, 6-3. There was one mild surprise. Tara Snyder defeated Wimbledon semifinalist Mirjana Lucic of Croatia, 7-5, 6-3, in the second round. Top-seeded Martina Hingis of Switzerland looked much sharper than she did in the first round Monday. Wednesday, Hingis defeated Sarah Pitkowski of France, 6-1, 6-1, in 46 minutes.

Tennis Notes

Patrick Rafter, who retired in the fifth set of his first-round match against Cedric Pioline on Tuesday night, has a small tear in the rotator cuff of his right shoulder. Rafter had an MRI exam on Wednesday at a New York hospital.

Featured Matches

Today’s featured matches at the U.S. Open at New York:

MEN

* Axel Pretzsch, Germany, vs. Andre Agassi (2)

* George Bastl, Switzerland, vs. Marcelo Rios (10), Chile

* Lorenzo Manta, Switzerland, vs. Richard Krajicek (12), Netherlands

* Carlos Moya (8), Spain, vs. Nicolas Escude, France

WOMEN

* Ruxandra Dragomir, Romania, vs. Lindsay Davenport (2)

* Silvia Farina, Italy, vs. Monica Seles (4)

* Mary Pierce (5), France vs. Gala Leon Garcia, Spain

* Serena Williams (7) vs. Jelena Kostanic, Croatia