An Oldie Again Is a Goodie : French Open: Connors beats Witsken in three sets, but McEnroe loses to Cherkasov.

PARIS — On old-timers’ day Monday at the French Open, the old guys broke even.

Thirty-eight-year-old Jimmy Connors, the oldest player in the field, cranked out a 6-3, 6-3, 7-5 victory over Todd Witsken, then breathed a sigh of relief for what he spared the audience at Roland Garros Stadium.

“A fourth and a fifth set would have been ugly,” Connors said.

The first French Open appearance in three years by 32-year-old John McEnroe, the second-oldest player in the field, finished downright homely when he failed to win a point in the last-set tiebreaker.

McEnroe started fast and finished slowly, losing to Andrei Cherkasov, 2-6, 6-4, 7-5, 7-6 (7-0). After waiting until last week before making up his mind to play, McEnroe said he paid the price for playing only one match since mid-April.

“I was hoping to get a little sharper for Davis Cup and Wimbledon,” McEnroe said. “My mind said I shouldn’t come here, but my heart said there could be some positive things happening.

“I certainly wasn’t expecting to do well in this tournament, so it’s not like I’m surprised either. The bottom line is I lost in the first round, so it’s hard to get overly positive.”

A McEnroe reached the second round, though. Patrick McEnroe, John’s 24-year-old brother, defeated Gilad Bloom in straight sets.

The highest-seeded players in action all won--Andre Agassi, Sergi Bruguera, Guy Forget and Michael Chang--although Forget, seeded seventh, struggled to defeat MaliVai Washington, 7-5, 2-6, 7-5, 1-6, 7-5.

Connors, who played his first French Open in 1972, four years before Jennifer Capriati was born, has never reached a final at Roland Garros, although he made the semifinals in 1979, 1980, 1984 and 1985.

After playing only three matches in 1990 because of a wrist injury, Connors is making a belated comeback, alternating tennis and announcing for NBC during the tournament. Against Witsken, ranked No. 67, Connors was up two breaks in the third set, but couldn’t hold on.

“If I was up there in the booth, I would say that the boy was awful lucky to get out of there in three sets,” Connors, ranked 324th, said.

Wildly cheered by a sellout crowd on Court 1, Connors said he was gratified by the reception, but he refused to call himself a legend.

“The word ‘legend’ is reserved for those who don’t do anymore,” Connors said. “I’m still trying to do .”

Marc Rosset of Switzerland was up a set on Agassi and held four break-point chances for 5-2 in the second set, but Agassi saved them all and wriggled away with a 3-6, 7-5, 6-4, 6-3 victory.

“Was it ever in doubt?” Agassi asked. “I felt pretty fortunate today. If he had gotten up two sets to nothing, the possibility of winning it would have been pretty slim.”

Actually, Agassi went so far as to change his itinerary to improve his chances these next two weeks. Instead of arriving the day before the tournament, which Agassi said is his usual pattern in Europe, he showed up last Thursday to prepare to play on clay.

Agassi needed all his wiles to pull out a difficult opener against a dangerous player like Rosset, a 6-foot-5 hard-serving Swiss. Staring down the possibility of being 2-5 in the second, Agassi was reeling.

“I was a little shell-shocked, to be honest,” said Agassi, who found Rosset’s serve particularly impressive.

“When he hit it, he made (Pete) Sampras’ serve look like Chang’s. That’s what you get when you’re 6-foot-10. Big boy.”

However soft Chang’s serve might be, it worked well enough for him to dispatch Jan Siemerink, 6-2, 6-0, 6-3. Afterward, he announced that he is contemplating a change in his style.

“I’m tired of sitting on the baseline and playing defensive tennis,” Chang said. “It’s just too difficult to do that because the courts are getting faster. . . . I need to be more aggressive, not only in serving and volleying (but) playing more unpredictable tennis instead of (people) saying that Michael Chang is playing from the back.

“I’m not going to make any drastic change--I’m not going to become a serve and volleyer--but I would like to eventually incorporate that into my game.”

Bruguera, the 20-year-old Spaniard many consider the favorite, dispatched Scott Davis with ease in a 61-minute first-round match, 6-2, 6-2, 6-1.

With two clay-court titles already this year in addition to an appearance in the final at Barcelona and the semifinals at Rome, Bruguera has improved his ranking from No. 28 to No. 5.

Bruguera is noted as a clay-court specialist, and his opener against Davis was his 29th clay-court match of the year. But if Bruguera is a man of many matches, he is also a man of few words.

On his expectations: “I expect nothing.”

On his improvements: “More experience. Shots. More mental.”

On his philosophy: “If I do well, I do well. If I lose, I lose.”

Actually, it is a philosophy McEnroe could identify with.

French Open Notes

Jennifer Capriati survived an onslaught of moonballs launched by Katia Piccolini and advanced to the second round with a 6-2, 7-5 victory. A semifinalist here last year when she played in her first Grand Slam event, Capriati said she is both troubled and encouraged by her play. “I just want to do as well as last year,” she said. “I am trying not to think about last year. Maybe there is more pressure on me this year. I can’t forget how well I did last year, though.” . . . Steffi Graf needed 1 hour 25 minutes to win her first match, 6-3, 7-6 (8-6), over Magdalena Maleeva, who saved two match points before losing. Graf, who said she has been working on hitting a topspin backhand in practice, discounted speculation that she is preoccupied with replacing Monica Seles as No. 1. “I’ve already been asked this question several times,” she said. “I can only say that I don’t really care about No. 1 right now. I’m just worried about my games and nothing else.” Seles plays her first-round match today against Radka Zrubakova of Czechoslovakia. Third-seeded Gabriela Sabatini opens against Marianne Werdel. . . . In addition to John McEnroe, who was seeded 15th, the only other seeded men’s player to lose was No. 16 Brad Gilbert, who fell to wild card Cedric Pioline of France, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4. It was Pioline’s first victory in a Grand Slam event. . . . The top two seeded men’s players get started today--No. 1 Stefan Edberg against Bart Wuyts of Belgium and No. 2 Boris Becker against Jordi Arresse of Spain. Sixth-seeded Pete Sampras faces Thomas Muster.