FRENCH OPEN / WOMEN : Davenport’s Debut Ends Quickly

PARIS â€”  It has been a dizzying trip for 16-year-old Lindsay Davenport, a wild ride from Southern California to Switzerland, to France and from No. 159 to No. 100 to No. 25 in the rankings.

Two days after winning her first pro tournament in Lucerne, Switzerland, Davenport walked onto Court 11 at Roland Garros to play her first match in the French Open.

She won four games. Judith Wiesner, a 27-year-old Austrian, made Davenport’s French Open debut a short one, 6-3, 6-1, but she didn’t necessarily make it a sad one.

“I like it a lot here,� said Davenport, a 6-foot-2 junior at Murrieta Valley High in southwestern Riverside County. “It’s a little different, the people are different, but I like it.�

At the same time, Davenport is picking up a lot of tennis admirers, especially in the United States Tennis Assn., which has chosen her as part of its touring pro program and named her to the Federation Cup team.

“She’s got ground strokes that knock people off the court,� said Lynne Rolley, Davenport’s coach with the USTA. “Look how far she’s come. Last year she was playing in the juniors here and now she is here after winning her first tournament and No. 25 in the world.�

Davenport began 1992 ranked No. 339 but finished it at No. 159, earning most of her computer points by winning a futures tournament in Key Biscayne, Fla. She turned pro at the Matrix Essentials/Evert Cup in Indian Wells in February and hasn’t looked back since, except to watch her rankings improve.

It’s a healthy 25 now, even though it might dip a little after the beating administered by Wiesner. All Davenport wants to do is become better . . . and graduate from high school.

“It takes so much,� she said. “I admire (Steffi) Graf and (Monica) Seles, who can win one week and the next week and keep going. I am not used to having to play a really hard week and then playing the most important tournament of the year or another big match.

“Hopefully, I will get used to it as time goes. . . . I am really happy the way things went, but not my match.�

In the meantime, Davenport is going to take a little time to see the sights with her friends Debbie Graham and Marianne Werdel.

“Last year, I didn’t get to see anything,� Davenport said. “This year, hopefully, I will get to see the Eiffel Tower and everything else.�

Tennis Notes

President Clinton isn’t the only one with a new haircut. Jennifer Capriati played a short match to go along with her short hair and trimmed Nathalie Herreman, 6-0, 6-1. Capriati said she needed a change. “I wanted to start growing fresh hair, new hair,� she said. “I never did it because I was just a little chicken, but then I went to the hairdresser and he is like, you know, he helped me make the decision.� . . . Gabriela Sabatini had no trouble with Radka Zrubakova, winning 6-0, 6-0.