BARCELONA ’92 OLYMPICS / DAY 6 : TENNIS : Without the Normal Seedings, First Round Was Swedes’ Last

On one side of the net stood the Swedish doubles team of Stefan Edberg and Anders Jarryd, former champions of three French Opens, two Wimbledons, two U.S. Opens and one Australian.

On the other side was the American tandem of Jim Courier and Pete Sampras, the Nos. 1- and 3-ranked singles players in the world.

In New York, they might call this the U.S. Open men’s championship final.

In Barcelona, it was a first-round Olympic doubles match, thrown onto a secondary court, just before dusk.

After 3 hours 25 minutes and five mind-melting sets Thursday evening, Courier and Sampras were 1-6, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6, 6-4 winners, and Jarryd, the world’s top-ranked doubles player, and Edberg, the world’s second-ranked singles player, were out.

Second-round play begins Saturday.

“It’s unfortunate,” Sampras said. “When you look at who was on that court, you had the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 (singles) players in the world, plus Jarryd, who’s No. 1 in doubles--and we’re playing in the first round. I’d say that’s a bit unfair.”

Edberg-Jarryd and Courier-Sampras became a match when the Olympic tennis pairings committee decided to seed its doubles field in strict accordance with ATP rankings. Edberg, Courier and Sampras play infrequently and thus accumulate very few doubles points, so their rankings range from Edberg’s No. 144 to Courier’s No. 293.

Consequently, neither team was seeded.

And if you are unseeded, “you are pulled out of the hat, the same as Hungary or San Marino or Greece,” said Carles Font, Olympic tennis press officer.

The Americans advanced on a day that began with Courier on Center Court, in the morning heat, facing Israel’s Gilad Bloom in a second-round singles match. Bloom lasted 1 hour 37 minutes, losing, 6-2, 6-0, 6-0.

Advancing along with Courier were No. 4-seeded Goran Ivanisevic of Croatia, a 6-7 (7-4), 6-2, 1-6, 6-3, 6-2 winner over Paul Haarhuis of the Netherlands, and No. 5 Boris Becker of Germany, who defeated El Aynaqui of Morocco, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 6-0.

Magnus Larsson of Sweden upset seventh-seeded Guy Forget of France, 6-3, 6-3, 6-1.

In women’s second-round singles matches, top-seeded Steffi Graf of Germany swept aside the Netherlands’ Brenda Schultz in 47 minutes, 6-1, 6-0, and American Mary Joe Fernandez, the No. 4-seeded player, overcame dehydration to defeat No. 45-ranked Patricia Hy of Canada, 6-2, 1-6, 12-10.