Courier Has Touch at Finish

NEW YORK —  The crown weighs heavy on the head of No. 1 these days as Jim Courier wades through the U.S. Open, searching for some fun.

Just a few weeks ago, the thrill was gone, Courier announced, right after losing to David Wheaton in the third round at Cincinnati.

And after playing poorly but still winning his opening match at the U.S. Open, the odds that Courier would go far didn’t seem so great, especially with Andrei Chesnokov lurking at the baseline in the second round.

But Courier outlasted two rain delays and beat Chesnokov, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-1, in something of a historic moment--his first victory over Chesnokov in six tries.

But something even more important happened. Courier began feeling sort of good about his tennis again. “Best I felt in a long, long time,” he said. “The whole package is feeling really good right now.”

Courier became No. 1 in February, then kept his roll going with a stunning, four-tournament winning streak that included the French Open.

Since then, he hasn’t been nearly as good but, what the heck, nobody could, Courier said. “If I could do that, I’d be on another planet.”

Open Notes

Because of rain delays, John McEnroe went on the court to play his afternoon match at 9:45 p.m., then took 2 hours 39 minutes to defeat Diego Nargiso, 4-6, 6-3, 6-0, 6-2. In a match featuring two rain delays totaling 4 hours 28 minutes, Brad Gilbert saved three match points and ousted 11th-seeded Michael Stich, 5-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-0), in a second-round match that began at 3:25 p.m. and ended at 11:50 p.m. . . . Rain washed out feature matches involving Andre Agassi and Goran Ivanisevic.