Boris Becker took one giant kangaroo hop out of the Australian Open on Monday, chased away in the first round by qualifier Anders Jarryd of Sweden.
The fourth-seeded Becker, the 1991 champion, played listless, uninspired tennis on a sore leg, his vaunted serve neither sharp nor hard, his volleys weak as he faded 3-6, 7-5, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 against a player who had dropped from No. 5 in the mid-1980s to No. 151.Jim Courier, the defending men's champion, had no such problems against another Swede, beating Lars Jonsson 7-5, 6-0, 6-3.
Nor did any problems beset Monica Seles, the two-time defending women's champion, who dismissed Italian Gloria Pizzichini 6-1, 6-2.
Becker, who had 11 double-faults and 10 aces in the 3-hour, 41-minute match, blamed his loss on an injury to his right thigh suffered shortly before the tournament.
"I couldn't move on my first serve," the three-time Wimbledon champion said. "That's the muscle I use when I serve, when I run."
The injury was evident in his slowness and lack of power, though he didn't limp on the court. Jarryd said he never even noticed that Becker was hurt.
Becker said he considered pulling out of the tournament before it began, but decided to give it a shot after flying all the way here. He had been in top form toward the end of 1992, then took a six-week break before playing in a tournament in Qatar, where he won both the singles and doubles.
Flinging his racket at times, yelling at himself on occasion, Becker tried but failed to raise the level of his game to counter the smooth, almost effortless mix of spins and flat shots Jarryd hit at him.
Becker had lost only once before in the first round of a Grand Slam event - the 1990 French Open - but his defeat seemed just a matter of time Monday when he netted an easy backhand volley to fall behind 3-1 in the fourth set. Becker cringed in disgust, his arms wrapped around his head as if he wished he could hide.
But it wasn't even time for a changeover, and Becker stayed on court, his errors and unusually weak serves exposed for everyone to see and Jarryd to punish.
Jarryd, a 32-year-old who had plenty of support from his countrymen painted in the blue and yellow colors of their flag, held serve the rest of the set and then throughout the final set. Jarryd relied less on power than he did on craftiness - serves that kicked right and left, a blend of baseline shots and volleys.
"I haven't done well in singles in a very long, long time," said Jarryd, who has been a successful doubles player with partners John Fitzgerald and Stefan Edberg, winning Wimbledon, the U.S. Open, the French Open and Australian doubles titles.
Left out of the main singles draw here, Jarryd had to win three matches just to qualify.
"Sometimes I thought I lost motivation," he said of his plummeting ranking. "The main reason, though, is I have not been playing well, and I just don't know why."
Jennifer Capriati, who fled the Australian Open in tears a year ago, has returned all smiles with a rebuilt game she hopes might finally be enough to topple Seles.
Capriati's confidence in her new style, which features quicker movement to the net, a harder serve and more variety in her groundstrokes, got a big boost Sunday.
A day after beating No. 3-ranked Gabriela Sabatini, the 16-year-old Capriati beat Anke Huber 6-1, 6-4 in sweltering Sydney to become the youngest winner in the 108-year history of the New South Wales Open.