Tennis: Hard labour for McEnroe: US Open / Americans join battle to corner the market in Grand Slam titles

THE United States Open was loaned out to Europe yesterday: a German (Boris Becker) defeated a German (Carl-Uwe Steeb), a Swede (Stefan Edberg) beat a Swede (Jonas Svensson) and a Spaniard (Emilio Sanchez) eliminated his younger brother (Javier). No Brits, of course.

It was the first time for 57 years that brothers had played each other in the tournament, and Javier came close to ending a sequence of seven defeats by Emilio, losing 6-4 in the fifth set. Becker was also tested by Steeb, who was warned for an audible obscenity when protesting about a dubious line call on break point as the match reached a climax. Becker won, 6-1, 4-6, 7-6, 6-3. Edberg dispatched Svensson in straight sets.

Today will include a home run as the Americans take stock of their championship contenders in the hope of cornering the market in Grand Slam men's singles titles.

Labor Day is not exactly a picnic in the Meadow for John McEnroe. The New Yorker, at 33 the oldest singles player in the tournament now that Jimmy Connors has left the scene, is assigned to spend the holiday toiling against the world No 1, Jim Courier. This is the main attraction on a day when Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras and Brad Gilbert also report for duty.

McEnroe, the 16th seed, has played Courier twice previously, their 1-1 record suggesting a parity which may be misleading. Courier was still climbing to the summit when he won their last match, in straight sets on a concrete court in Tokyo last year, and McEnroe will also have to erase the memory of the ease with which he was dismissed by Agassi in the Wimbledon semi-finals if he is to advance beyond the fourth round here.

If McEnroe's shots are as keen as his pre-match humour, it will be a contest to savour. 'The first time I played him, he had a fiery sort of attitude,' he said, recounting a straight-sets victory against Courier on a carpet court in Detroit four years ago. 'He complained to the umpire about something I did. I said, 'Hey, that is pretty crass for a young guy'. '

Since then, the four-times champion has watched Courier, 22, develop into 'the consummate professional', the type who 'learns from other people as well as their own mistakes.' And the type who does not allow himself to be undermined by reputations, as he proved when closing the Jimmy Connors Show in the semi-finals last year.

McEnroe was projected to meet Courier in the fourth round at Wimbledon, but the holder of the French and Australian titles was beaten in the third round by Andrei Olhovskiy, a Russian qualifier.

'He (Courier) has had one or two bad results the whole year, and all of a sudden the talk is he's not playing that well,' McEnroe said. 'It is ridiculous. He has had by far the best year anyone has had. I know it will be an unbelieavably tough match. I feel like I played real well to get where I am supposed to get. This is a whole other deal. This separates the men from the boys.'

McEnroe does not expect the home crowd to be a factor: 'Unless I play great tennis it is not going to matter if they stand on their heads and do cartwheels while he serves.'

Nor does Courier: 'The worst- case scenario you could ever see was Connors last year in the semis, and I didn't have any problems with crowd mania.'

McEnroe could not resist having a dig at the 40-year-old Connors, who said after losing to Ivan Lendl in the second round that he (Connors) was a better player at 32 than Lendl is at the same age. 'I don't think that the top players deserve to be insulted,' McEnroe said.

Lendl laboured on yesterday towards a quarter-final against Becker. The US citizen recovered from an edgy start to defeat Chuck Adams 2-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4.

Sampras, seeded three, plays Guy Forget (13), of France, who has a 3-1 record against him - his latest success being indoors in last year's Davis Cup final. The American, who triumphed here in 1990, was fortunate to survive a third- round match against a compatriot, Todd Martin, who was deceived by a net-cord on break point when serving for a 3-0 lead in the fifth set. Sampras won, 7-6, 2-6, 4-6, 7-5, 6-4.

Gilbert plays another unseeded contender, the Russian Alexander Volkov, who eliminated Goran Ivanisevic, the Wimbledon runner- up, in straight sets. If the match goes to a fifth set, Volkov had best be wary of a tie-break. Gilbert, who eliminated Michael Stich 7-0 in a fifth set shoot-out in the second round, did precisely the same to Tommy Hoy. The American's book is due to be published shortly. The title: Winning Ugly.

Michael Chang, the fourth seed, extended the American influence to the lower half of the draw yesterday with a 6-3, 6-3, 6-1 win against Arnaud Boetsch, of France.

In the women's singles, Patricia Hy, who beat Jennifer Capriati on Friday, advanced to the quarter- finals with a 6-1, 7-6 win against Helena Sukova, the 13th seed. Monica Seles had a 6-1, 6-2 win against the Gigi Fernandez, and Gabriela Sabatini defeated Sabine Appelmans 6-1, 6-3.

Results, Sport in Short, page 27