Blustery Day Leads to Ouster for Four

PARIS — Undependable, fickle and crucial to the conduct of the French Open, the weather can be counted on to assert itself at some point in the tournament.

Sunday was the day. After the tournament had been lulled into a false sense of security by a week of balmy weather, an ill wind blew through Roland Garros, taking with it the best clay-court player among the men this season and three of the top 10 women.

The wind kicked up overnight and brought with it cold temperatures, despite spotty sunshine. The unpredictable and powerful gusts snatched away service tosses and drove well-hit balls off the courts. The wind scoured the top layer of crushed brick off the courts and fouled the air with swirling grit.

“Because of the wind, obviously there’s almost no clay on the court. It plays almost like a hard court,” said Steffi Graf, whose high service toss was buffeted during her match.

Graf, who is seeded second, struggled but managed to win her fourth-round match against 13th-seeded Irina Spirlea, 6-7 (4-7), 6-2, 6-2.

Her game was less affected by the wind than Alex Corretja’s. Eighth-seeded Corretja had the tournament’s most impressive resume. He had played and won more matches on clay this year than any other player.

But the Spaniard’s pure clay-court style of looping forehands and sliced backhands didn’t suit the day’s conditions. Any ball with topspin was promptly blown out of play, and sliced balls were unmanageable.

The resulting handicap for Corretja caused him to lose to a qualifier, Filip Dewulf of Belgium, in the fourth-round match, 5-7, 6-1, 6-4, 7-5.

Marc Rosset of Switzerland, seeded No. 15, was upset by Magnus Norman of Sweden, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-3), 6-3.

The same fate befell Conchita Martinez of Spain, another excellent clay-court player. Seeded seventh, she lost to 11th-seeded Amanda Coetzer, 6-7 (4-7), 6-4, 6-3. The other seeded woman to be upset was Lindsay Davenport. Ninth-seeded Iva Majoli defeated fifth-seeded Davenport, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2.

Defending champion Yevgeny Kafelnikov defeated Mark Philippoussis of Australia, 6-2, 6-3, 7-5. Kafelnikov, seeded third, is the only seeded player left in the top half of the men’s draw.

Corretja and Dewulf played early in the day, when the wind was at its most fierce. Corretja was unable to adjust by trying to hit more flat strokes.

“Today was one of the worst matches to play in my life because of the conditions,” he said. “It was so difficult to play. I think this is no excuse to lose. I think the wind just killed my game today.”

Martinez took her loss hard, understandably. Unlike other players, such as Graf, Martinez has had little trouble with Coetzer, holding a 10-0 advantage over the South African. But Coetzer’s more effective footwork helped her in the conditions and allowed her to get to balls blown into unexpected corners.

Rosset, always articulate but not always fully focused on the court, had read the weather forecast but said there is no way to prepare to play in wind.

“When you are on the court and you’re ready to hit, [and] you get the ball in your face because the wind is pushing it toward you, it creates a bit of doubt,” he said. “You miss on very easy points; you play on the frame of your racket on something extremely easy; you cannot calculate and anticipate the shots because the ball is always moving. It creates tremendous doubt.”

Top-seeded Martina Hingis played a weird match against 16th-seeded Barbara Paulus of Austria. Hingis won, 6-3, 0-6, 6-0, failing to hold her serve at all in the second set.

The potentially exciting match between third-seeded Monica Seles and 10th-seeded Mary Pierce was well-played but the outcome was never in doubt. Seles won, 6-4, 7-5, and had to deal not only with Pierce’s penetrating shots, but also the partisan French crowd.

Seles was serving for the match at 5-4, but the fans chose that moment to whistle, cheer and begin a wave. Seles became unsettled during the delay, which the chair umpire was unable to quell, and lost her serve.

She retaliated a few games later by serving an ace up the middle on match point.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it,” Seles said. “It disrupted my concentration tremendously. For the length of time they were doing it and also the critical time, that’s what’s tough. But I think it’s great . . . when you get the crowd involved. That’s one of the reasons as a player you love to play.”

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Today’s Featured Matches

MEN

* Michael Chang (2) vs. Sergi Bruguera (16)

* Marcelo Rios (7) vs. Hicham Arazi

WOMEN

* No singles

* Doubles--Gigi Fernandez and Natasha Zvereva (1) vs.

Henrieta Nagyova and Patty Schnyder