Kuerten Runs Into Hard Time and Fast Serves

Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil, a two-time French Open winner, is clearly more comfortable on the red clay at Roland Garros in Paris than on the hard courts at the National Tennis Center.

But that made it no less shocking Tuesday when Kuerten, seeded second, was upset by qualifier Wayne Arthurs of Australia, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (1), in the opening round of the U.S. Open.

While Arthurs, best known as a doubles specialist, was playing this summer in a challenger event at Wrexham, Wales, in an attempt to improve his ranking, Kuerten was enjoying one of the best hard-court seasons of his career.

He reached the semifinals at Cincinnati two weeks ago and won at Indianapolis last week, defeating Marat Safin of Russia in the final.

“I feel like I was playing maybe my best tennis in hard court, coming well prepared,” Kuerten said. “So I had great feelings.”

They quickly turned to heartache as the left-handed Arthurs unleashed 26 aces, among them a 134-mph rocket on match point.

“The serve. I could not . . . too strong, his serve,” Kuerten said.

Told that Kuerten had been one of the tournament favorites, Arthurs said, “Not anymore.”

Arthurs’ victory was easily the most surprising result on a day that unfolded mostly according to form but also included what seemed a farewell to New York--and possibly to tennis?--by Goran Ivanisevic and more haranguing by Lisa Raymond about being left off the U.S. Olympic team.

The only other seeded player to fall was No. 16 Julie Halard-Decugis of France, a 6-3, 6-4 loser to Mariam Oremans of the Netherlands.

Galo Blanco of Spain, ranked No. 114 in the world, upset unseeded and two-time U.S. Open champion Patrick Rafter of Australia, 7-6 (3), 2-6, 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 (5) in a match that ended after midnight local time. It was Rafter’s second consecutive first-round loss in the tournament.

Earlier, fifth-seeded Serena Williams opened defense of her title with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Tina Pisnik of Slovakia, and second-seeded Lindsay Davenport, the 1998 champion, blasted through Gala Leon Garcia of Spain, 6-0, 6-1.

French Open champion Mary Pierce of France, seeded fourth, overpowered Alexandra Stevenson, 6-3, 6-4, sending the American to her fourth first-round exit in five Grand Slam tournaments since her surprising run to the Wimbledon semifinals in 1999.

Among the highest-seeded men, No. 7 Thomas Enqvist of Sweden was a 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 winner over Mariano Puerta of Argentina and No. 8 Alex Corretja of Spain defeated Paradorn Srichaphan of Thailand, 7-6 (2), 6-0, 6-0.

Unseeded Todd Martin, a U.S. Open finalist last year, defeated Vincent Spadea, 6-4, 6-1, 1-6, 6-2. The loss was the fifth in a row for Spadea, who is 2-23 this year and had lost a record 21 consecutive matches before defeating Greg Rusedski of Britain at Wimbledon.

Kuerten is only the second No. 2 seed to lose in the first round at the U.S. Open since 1956, the other being Ivanisevic in 1994.

Ivanisevic lost another first-round match Tuesday, falling meekly against Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia, 3-6, 6-0, 6-1, 6-0.

A three-time runner-up at Wimbledon, Ivanisevic was booed as he left the court and indicated later that he might not play in the Sydney Olympics next month, and might be finished with tennis altogether.

“I’m undecided to play anymore this year,” he said during a rambling postmatch news conference. “It’s tough to say yes, it’s tough to say no. It’s stupid to make that decision right after losing a match.”

Later, after she had defeated Magdelena Grybowska of Poland, 6-1, 6-0, Raymond met with reporters and reiterated her disappointment in an arbitrator’s decision last week to leave intact the Olympic team as chosen by Coach Billie Jean King.

“I feel like, as the No. 1 doubles player in the world, I deserve to represent the United States in the doubles discipline,” Raymond said. “You know, this isn’t about singles; this is about doubles. . . .

“Common sense would tell me if I’m No. 1 in the world in doubles that I deserve to go to the Olympics to play doubles.”

Oddly enough, Raymond seems to have an ally in Richard Williams, father of Venus and Serena. He was quoted in Tuesday’s New York Daily News as saying, “If I was the person who picked the team, I would have put Lisa on it.”

Said Raymond, laughing, “I actually did read that. No, Mr. Williams has not said anything to me. I don’t know. Whatever.”

Nor has Serena Williams said anything to her, though she did sound sympathetic afterward in the interview room.

Well, kind of.

“It’s just disappointing that all of us won’t be able to go to the Olympics,” Williams said. “Obviously, she’s a great doubles player [but] not everyone can win. You win some, you lose some. Apparently, this is a bad one to lose.”

Kuerten knows the feeling.

“Sometimes, you know . . . things don’t go the way you like,” he said. “Today was tough day for me. I think even anyplace, doesn’t matter the surface, even if you playing well, feeling better, you come out against a tough opponent, you miss some shots, things don’t go the way you want. Many good guys on the tour.”

*

Andre Agassi, whose game has slipped since January, revealed in an interview that he has been preoccupied because both his mother and a sister are battling breast cancer.

After his first-round U.S. Open victory over Alex Kim on Monday night, Agassi told CBS television about his younger sister, Tammee, and his mother, Elizabeth.

“It has been a difficult year in many respects with my sister having breast cancer and my mom was diagnosed with it just a month ago,” Agassi told CBS. “It hasn’t been easy, but in many ways it has gotten the family stronger and close.”

Reuters contributed to this story.

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Featured Matches

The schedule of highlighted matches on the show courts and others involving seeded players at the U.S. Open tennis championships. Play begins on all courts at 8 a.m. PDT:

ARTHUR ASHE STADIUM

* Anne Kremer, Luxembourg, vs. Monica Seles (6)

* Venus Williams (3) vs. Kveta Hrdlickova, Czech Republic

* Paul Goldstein vs. Magnus Norman (3), Sweden

Play begins at 4:30 p.m.

* Martina Hingis (1), Switzerland, vs. Kristina Brandi

* Pete Sampras (4) vs. Justin Gimelstob

LOUIS ARMSTRONG STADIUM

* Marat Safin (6), Russia, vs. Thierry Guardiola, France

* Jennifer Capriati (15) vs. Henrieta Nagyova, Slovakia

* Jan-Michael Gambill vs. Mardy Fish

* Kristie Boogert and Miriam Oremans, Netherlands, vs. Serena and Venus Williams

Not before 3 p.m.

* Rita Grande, Italy, and Emilie Loit, France, vs. Jennifer Capriati and Anna Kournikova (14), Russia