Teenage Americans Enjoying Their Debuts In Grand Style

There are simpler places to launch a pro tennis career than the U.S. Open, where the pressure of a Grand Slam event’s power-packed field is complicated by New York’s drama and distractions.

It hardly disturbed Lilia Osterloh and Brie Rippner, part of a fistful of young American women who have turned the National Tennis Center into their personal playground this week.

Osterloh, the NCAA champion from Stanford, and Rippner both won their first pro matches in the glare of the Open. Two others, 16-year-old amateur Jackie Trail and 1995 junior champion Tara Snyder, also won their Open openers.

That’s virtually unprecedented: four American wild-card women into the Open’s second round.

Then Osterloh took it a step further Wednesday, advancing to the third round when another young American, Corina Morariu, was forced to retire from their match in the third set because of a kidney infection.

“She was playing well,” said Osterloh, who lost a first-set tiebreak before taking control. “I found my rhythm in the second and felt in control of the match.”

There was some locker room talk that Morariu had not been feeling well for the past few months.

“It was tough because she is my friend,” Osterloh said. “but I’m all business on the court.”

For Osterloh, the victory satisfied a personal goal. She won a round here in a get-acquainted visit as an amateur last year.

“I wanted to get past the first round,” she said. “I did that. It’s great. It’s special. It’s my first pro tournament.”

She laughed at being lumped in with the kids. She is, after all, 19 with a year of college behind her.

“There are a lot of up-and-coming players,” she said. “Most of the others are younger than me. I feel a little older.”

Muster playful

Austrian clay-court specialist Thomas Muster is the definition of a good sport. Even as the U.S. Open’s fifth seed was on his way to a four-set second-round loss to Tim Henman of England, he gave the crowd a laugh by staging a mock chase scene and afterward called his impish opponent “a good spirit … good for the game.”

Henman, a 6-3, 7-6, 4-6, 6-4 winner who made the quarterfinals at Wimbledon this year, returned the favor, labeling Muster “a pretty entertaining guy both on and off the court… . I certainly enjoyed the match, and I think quite a lot of other people did.”

But other, darker extracurricular issues came up after the match.

Muster, the 1995 French Open champion who has been ranked No. 1 in the world, had harsh words about persistent - and thus far false - innuendo that he tested positive for drugs this year at an ATP tour event. The latest allegations came from an Italian newspaper. The ATP issued a statement calling the rumors “uninformed and irresponsible.”

Racqueteering

Russia’s telegenic but frosty 16-year-old Anna Kournikova, on the media and public fascination about her dating 27-year-old Detroit Red Wing Sergei Federov: “I learned my lesson at Wimbledon that I don’t read any papers.”

Kournikova fell to fifth-seeded Irina Spirlea of Romania 6-1, 3-6, 6-3.

Cameo appearance

Zina Garrison Jackson made a quick appearance in this year’s U.S. Open. The Houston native, who teamed with Lori McNeil in the women’s doubles, played in her 18th U.S. Open.

The Texas pair lost a first-round match to the seventh-seeded team of Lindsay Davenport and Jana Novotna 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.