Muster adds more fuel to feud

An admirer of the new wooden Centre Court at the Italian Open here, Thomas Muster could not resist teasing that a taxi comes in handy to reach it. No problem. Mercedes, the ATP Tour sponsors, provides competitors with courtesy cars to and from the Foro Italico and Lamborghinis - albeit golf carts - shuttle them between the locker-room and the stadium.

Such trappings of affluence at the $2m (pounds 1.3m) tournament ($309,000 for the winner) are not reflected in the number of leading players who entered, however. Pete Sampras, the world No 1, is mourning the death of his coach, Tim Gullikson; Michael Chang is injured, as is Andre Agassi, who did not intend to play here anyway; and Boris Becker did not have Rome on his itinerary.

The European clay-court season has not been notable for American raiders, and yesterday Muster took the latest swipe in his tit-for-tat feud with them. "It's really amazing to me that all the guys are injured at the same time of year," the defending champion said. "It proves what I've said, that nobody respects the European clay-court tour.

"We Europeans are very stupid. We wait for the Americans to come and offer them a lot of money and they shit on our heads, and that's not very nice."

Nor is Muster's quote, but, then, the Austrian has been subjected to a fair amount of verbal abuse from some of the Americans this year since daring to become the world No 1 for the odd week on the strength of his results on clay.

Agassi played in Monte Carlo recently, winning his first match there in three visits before being jeered by the crowd for his performance in losing to Alberto Costa, of Spain. Sampras is due to set foot on clay for the first time this year in Dusseldorf next week.

"I don't know what their tactic is, but maybe at the French Open we are going to have a big surprise," added Muster, who triumphed in Paris last year.

When minding his own business yesterday, Muster, the top seed, eased his game back on track with 6-3, 6-0 win against his compatriot Herbert Wiltschnig, a qualifier ranked No 309. It was Muster's first outing since his 38-match winning streak on clay was ended in Munich by the Spanish teenager Carlos Moya.

The tournament is not exactly devoid of Americans. Jim Courier, a winner in 1992 and 1993, joined Todd Martin and Malivai Washington in the second round with a 6-3, 6-3 win against Italy's Renzo Furlan.

Europeans have experienced a few blips. Roberto Carretero, the Spaniard who won the Hamburg title on Sunday as a qualifier, lost to Australia's Mark Philippoussis in a third-set tie-break.

Sergi Bruguera, runner-up to Muster here last year and holder of the French Open for the two years prior to he Austrian's succession, will not even be seeded this time. The Spaniard's first-round defeat by Richard Krajicek means that he will drop out of the top 20.

Although Michael Stich defeated Emilio Sanchez, 6-3, 7-6, in his first match since a recurrence of ankle trouble in February, he has decided that he is not fit enough to make a serious challenge in Paris.

Steffi Graf, making her first home appearance since her tax affairs came under investigation, defeated American Tami Whitlinger Jones 6- 1, 6-2 in just 49 minutes in the first round of the German Open in Berlin yesterday. Graf wept in front of 6,000 ecstatic fans as she was presented with the German journalists' award for the World Sports Personality of 1995.