Bruguera, Vicario Thrive Defending French Champs Win; Stich Ends Edberg’s Title Quest
Sergi Bruguera and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario of Spain, the defending champions in the French Open, scored solid secondround victories today over lowranked opponents.
But the tournament ended abruptly for Stefan Edberg, unseeded here for the first time in 10 years. Michael Stich, the No. 12 seed, beat the Swede 7-6 (7-3), 6-3, 6-2, again thwarting Edberg’s hopes of completing a career sweep of the Grand Slam events.
“He’s a little bit slower, maybe not as confident,” Stich said of Edberg.
Stich said he expected a more difficult match and described the outcome as “a little bit sad.”
“It hurts a little bit more to see him not playing that well,” Stich said. “He’s one of the heroes, one of the guys you look up to.”
Bruguera, pursuing his third straight title, won 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 over fellow Spaniard Emilio Alvarez, a qualifier ranked only 166th.
No. 3 seed Boris Becker easily beat American Jared Palmer, 6-2, 6-2, 6-2, and sixth-seeded Michael Chang downed Daniel Vacek of the Czech Republic, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4.
No. 14 seed Todd Martin also advanced, 6-2, 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-5) over Slava Dosedol of the Czech Republic. Germany’s Bernd Karbacher won a five-set marathon over Sweden’s Mikael Tillstrom, first-round winner over No. 4 seed Goran Ivanisevic.
Sanchez Vicario, champion here in 1989 and last year, defeated 100thranked Sarah Pitkowski of France 6-3, 6-0. Pitkowski engaged the world No. 1 in numerous hard-fought rallies and extended the Center Court match to 71 minutes, longer than usual for Sanchez Vicario at this stage of a Grand Slam.
Third-seeded Mary Pierce, another top contender, struggled early against hard-serving German Christina Singer before winning 7-5, 6-0. She won the last 10 games.
Four other women’s seeds also advanced to the third round with straight-sets victories. No. 5 Jana Novotna beat Petra Schwarz-Ritter of Austria, 6-4, 6-3; No. 7 Lindsay Davenport beat France’s Sandrine Testud, 6-3, 7-5; No. 12 Iva Majoli crushed Argentina’s Maria Jose Gaidano, 6-1, 6-0, and No. 14 Amy Frazier beat Karina Habsudova of Slovakia, 6-2, 6-4.
With one more victory apiece, Frazier and Sanchez Vicario would meet in the quarterfinals.
Another winner was Ai Sugiyama, 6-1, 6-3 over Laurence Courtois of Belgium. The unseeded Japanese player, competing in her first French Open, upset 15th-seeded Helena Sukova in the first round.
The big surprise Wednesday was the upset of No. 2 seed Pete Sampras by 24th-ranked Austrian Gilbert Schaller.
“It seems like Austrian players’ year on clay courts,” said Schaller, who won his suspended first-round match in five sets after trailing when darkness halted play Tuesday.
Schaller’s Davis Cup teammate, Thomas Muster, already was rated one of the three favorites for the title after winning five consecutive claycourt tournaments.
Muster rolled to his 30th straight win on clay with a straight-sets victory Wednesday over Cedric Pioline.
xxxx French Open Winners: Two-time defending champion Sergi Bruguera defeated compatriot Emilio Alvarez, No. 12 Michael Stich eliminated Stefan Edberg and No. 3 Boris Becker beat Jared Palmer. Defending champion Arantxa Sanchez Vicario and runner-up Mary Pierce both easily advanced to the third round. Losers: Olympic gold medalist Marc Rosset, No.16, was eliminated by Fernando Meligeni of Brazil. Look ahead: Top-seeded Andre Agassi plays Francisco Clavet and No. 9 Yevgeny Kafelnikov meets David Wheaton of the United States … Alberto Berasategui, last year’s runner-up who is seeded No. 11, takes on Andrei Medvedev. Three-time champion Steffi Graf plays Nathalie Baudine while Conchita Martinez, No.4, faces Julie Halard of France. Quote of the day: “My wife and me, we went to a Chinese restaurant and I was thinking better to have one or two beers, because if I have beers I sleep well, and I think it was not a bad idea.” - Gilbert Schaller, on Wednesday’s conquest of Pete Sampras. Stat of the day: Sixteen of the 17 Frenchmen in the draw have been eliminated in the first two rounds. Arnaud Boetsch plays on.