Sampras Overwhelms Down Under Top Seed Avoids Run Of Upsets That Claims Becker, Sabatini

In a zone of his own, Pete Sampras avoided the pitfalls that snared other big names and breezed into the third round today at the Australian Open.

As the sun broke through early afternoon clouds and began broiling the courts, Sampras raced through a 6-2, 6-0, 6-1 victory over young Slovakian qualifier Jan Kroslak in 76 minutes.

“When the sun comes out, it’s a lot quicker,” Sampras said of the rubberized courts. “The wind was swirling around on Court 1. On center court, it’s in one direction and you have to adapt. And I adapted well.

“Upsets happen, especially in the first week. You really need to get through, not take anything for granted, play like it’s your last match.”

It was the day after Boris Becker fell victim once more to the McEnroe conspiracy at the Australian Open, a long-distance and nearly annual intrigue designed to torment the former champion.

This time it was Patrick McEnroe who knocked out No. 3 Becker in the first round Tuesday night, slicing, dicing and icing him 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (7-4) for his biggest win over a seeded player in a Grand Slam event.

That upset, which followed one of women’s No. 5 Gabriela Sabatini, made an impression on other highly seeded players.

No. 7 Michael Stich got right down to business against Alex O’Brien, beating him 6-0, 6-3, 6-4. No. 9 Jim Courier, two-time champion, did the same against Cristiano Caratti to win 6-2, 6-2, 6-1.

Women’s No. 2 Conchita Martinez defeated Veronika Martinek 6-1, 6-3, No. 3 Jana Novotna downed Patricia Hy-Boulias 6-2, 3-6, 6-0, No. 6 Lindsay Davenport beat Wiltrud Probst 6-2, 6-2, and No. 7 Kimiko Date took Elena Likhovtseva 6-2, 6-2.

Martina Hingis, the 14-year-old Swiss playing her first Grand Slam tournament, lost in the second round to Kyoko Nagatsuka, 6-3, 6-4.

Three years ago, John McEnroe did the job against Becker, beating him in the third round, also in straight sets. The year before that, Patrick gave Becker fits, taking the first set and leading in the second before losing in the semifinals.

The McEnroe brothers spoke last week after Patrick won the first singles title of his career in Sydney. Asked what advice he got from his big brother, Patrick joked, “He said, ‘Serve wide, come in, hit a drop volley winner.”’

Actually, that would have been John’s style. Patrick’s way of playing is to stay back, curl backhands at impossible angles, keep the ball alive and let his opponent make mistakes, which is what happened, with Becker spraying 57 unforced errors to Patrick’s 28.

“If he played as well as he could, obviously he was going to beat me,” said Patrick, who is ranked No. 65. “But I knew if he was a little bit off, the way I’ve been playing I had a chance.”

On a day when Andre Agassi made his successful debut at the Australian Open with a straight sets victory over Grant Stafford, two big upsets at night stole the show. Sabatini, coming off consecutive wins in the New South Wales Open and last year’s Virginia Slims Championship, lost 6-4, 6-4 to American Marianne Werdel Witmeyer.

Sabatini hurt her back during the match and lay face down while a trainer massaged her for several minutes during an injury timeout midway through the second set.

“I started to feel it at the beginning of the second set,” Sabatini said. “It was really painful. After I was treated, it was still there. I don’t know what happened.”

Becker didn’t know what happened, either, and he was more than a little bit off all night. He was sometimes 10 feet off the court, trying to blast shots from the baseline instead of taking charge at the net. He was suckered into playing McEnroe’s game and looked bewildered by it.

“I seemed to have no timing, no rhythm, especially on my forehand,” Becker said. “And I played against an opponent who won a tournament last week, who was still flying high on his emotions with his first-ever win. He played a great match. He didn’t miss many balls. The opportunities he got, he took.

“I didn’t have a good feeling for the ball, so I really wasn’t sure when I was hitting the ball where it was going. That’s why I was always a step slow, because I wouldn’t jump right away. I looked first where the ball was going and then I was running, but then it was too late.”

At the start of the tiebreaker, Becker had the look of a beaten man. He’d been shouting at himself throughout the match, complaining to the umpire about calls, tossing his racket in the air and bouncing it off the court. It was a lot of histrionics to get himself going, but nothing worked.

Becker lost the first point of the tiebreaker when McEnroe chased down a backhand and drilled a perfect passing shot in the corner. Becker shook his head as if he knew his defeat was inevitable. And so it was, McEnroe never yielding on his serve until he put away the final shot, appropriately on one more crosscourt backhand that Becker couldn’t touch.

McEnroe said his brother offered encouragement rather than strategy in their conversation last week after the Sydney victory.