It’s Goran, Goran, Gone Ivanisevic Makes Another Early Exit In Grand Slam Event

He’s outta there, the third straight Grand Slam in which tennis’ Dr. Strange Racket has been bounced in the first round.

“I am not going to be happy. I am down. I am disappointed in this moment,” said fourth-seeded Goran Ivanisevic after he was chucked to the sidelines by qualifier Mikael Tillstrom of Sweden 7-5, 6-3, 6-4 at the French Open.

And then he went into his usual share-my-funk overload. “If I have a chance, I would break all my rackets. I will stop playing tennis, you know. But, maybe, after 1 hour I am not going to think like that.”

It was just another burp in the inscrutable Croatian’s sometimes unfathomable career.

He is totally unpredictable. He plays like a genius. He plays horribly.

He lost in the first round of the U.S. Open last year to Markus Zoecke and in the first round of the Australian Open to Carl-Uwe Steeb, though in all fairness to Ivanisevic, he had cartilage damage in his knee for that one.

He wasn’t the only seed to fall on the second day of the French. On the women’s side, No. 10 Natasha Zvereva lost to qualifier Catalina Cristea of Romania 1-6, 7-5, 6-3 and No. 13 Mary Joe Fernandez of Miami, once again not fully healthy, was outplayed and outhustled by qualifier Paola Suarez 6-4, 6-3.

Meanwhile, six men’s seeds got through the second round while No. 2 Pete Sampras had to rally from a poor start for a 6-7 (3-7), 6-4, 3-1 lead when play was suspended because of darkness. He’ll finish today, if the rain doesn’t stall things again.

The winners: No. 3 Boris Becker, No. 6 Michael Chang, No. 7 Sergi Bruguera, No. 12 Michael Stich, No. 14 Todd Martin and No. 16 Marc Rosset.

On the women’s side, five seeds won their opening matches and none more impressively than No. 4 Conchita Martinez, the French Open favorite, who crushed Sabine Hack 6-0, 6-0.

The other winners: No. 3 Mary Pierce, No. 6 Magdalena Maleeva, No. 14 Amy Frazier and No. 16 Naoko Sawamatsu.

It was a day with two rain interruptions which sent thousands of fans scurrying for cover, causing several matches to be postponed until today.

No. 10 seed Magnus Larsson, for example, still hasn’t played. There were those who weren’t sure that Ivanisevic had played yet, either.

He showed up, but his game was a mystery.

During the rain delay, his coach, Bob Brett, told him he’d have to change his game to get Tillstrom out of rhythm.

“I did not change anything, so I didn’t win,” Ivanisevic said.

So why didn’t he take his coach’s advice? “I tried,” he pleaded. “But I didn’t do anything.”

Tillstrom, naturally, was thrilled. “First of all, I was taking chances on his big first serve. But I felt as long as we got into the rallies I was winning most of the points.

“Just play the ball, let him make the mistakes,” Tillstrom said.

Sampras was the last match on the stadium court and he and Gilbert Schaller, a very tough Austrian clay court expert, were victims of the rain. Things got pushed back so far they couldn’t finish.

Sampras started badly and trailed 2-4 early in the second set and seemed hopelessly lost in the extended rallies.

Suddenly, he caught fire, won the set and had momentum going into the third. The postponement, however, can only help Schaller.

Many expected Becker, with his shaky record on clay (he’s never won a dirt tournament), to have a stiff fight from Javier Frana, who is coming off four straight semifinal or better tournaments.

But Becker’s serve and ground strokes dominated. “He (Frana) didn’t take any risks in the first-set tiebreak and I took my chances.”

Martinez’s win was her 22nd in a row on clay, dating back to 1994. She looked unconquerable against Hack.