Garros

Sometime toward the end of the 1998 NFL season, NBC's first without professional football in more than three decades, the dull throb of missing the NFL became a certified ache in the pit of Dick Enberg's gut and he knew he had to do something, anything, to make it go away. "That first year, I had trouble sitting through games, and late that year, I heard some announcer say, `I talked with Dan Marino yesterday.' And I bolted up in my chair, and I said, `That's what I used to do. I'd say, `I talked with Dan Marino,' " Enberg said.

PARIS - On tour, they call Karol Kucera "Little Cat," and down the stretch yesterday at the French Open, Andre Agassi looked as defenseless as a goldfish in a bowl. For Agassi, there will be no repeat of last year's emotional journey at Roland Garros. No theatrical bows and blown kisses to all corners of the court. No hands clutching the head in stunned delight. No communion with the Parisian public. Agassi turned escape into an art form here on his way to the 1999 title, but this year it was Kucera's turn to twist free of the ropes, winning, 2-6, 7-5, 6-1, 6-0, in the second round and sending a shock wave through the refurbished center court where Agassi and Steffi Graf became champions last year, before they became an item.

PARIS -- Perhaps, no one ever told No. 1 Martina Hingis that she should be careful for what she asks.The 18-year-old phenom said boldly Thursday after moving into the French Open finals that, well, "Really, I pretty much actually would prefer to play Steffi."The Steffi in question is Steffi Graf, a five-time champion here who has revitalized her career and reached a Grand Slam final for the first time in nearly three years."Steffi, with her absence of being in the finals for the last two years, I would hope she'll be a little bit nervous," Hingis said.

PARIS -- Only a few days after I arrived in Paris to cover the French Open for The Sun, a friend said to me, "Why is it you go to Paris and everyone goes on strike?"I laughed. After all, only the museums and the baggage handlers at the airport had gone on strike.But then, two days ago, the Metro went on strike too, and it was no longer funny.The Metro is the Paris subway. With its workers on strike, the City of Light snarled to a halt. Buses, if you could figure out the routes and transfers, were packed and slow.

PARIS -- The red clay at Roland Garros has the same rich look as the suede they're selling in the expensive fashion houses on Rue du Faubourg and Avenue Montaigne.And the clay at the French Open is costly, too.Yesterday, when the last of the men's quarterfinalists were determined, the likes of world No. 1 Yevgeny Kafelnikov, No. 2 Pete Sampras, No. 3 Patrick Rafter and No. 4 Carlos Moya were nowhere in sight. The clay, it seems, is very costly this season. Never before in the modern era has Roland Garros been without its top four men's seeds this early.

PARIS -- So, what happened to French Open champions Iva Majoli and Gustavo Kuerten after the applause stopped at Roland Garros in June?The dream ending -- two unexpected, popular winners -- would be fine if it were a movie. But once the tour resumed, Majoli and Kuerten almost seemed caught in a Roland Garros freeze frame. Majoli has not won a tournament since. She hasn't been in a final and is clinging to a No. 10 ranking. Kuerten, at least, got to two finals in the summer, losing to Felix Mantilla at Bologna, Italy, and Chris Woodruff at Montreal.

PARIS -- Gustavo Kuerten had never done any of this before. Never appeared in a Grand Slam final. Never won a final of any kind. Certainly, he had never been asked to address the crowd on Court Central at Roland Garros.The flamboyant 20-year-old from Brazil handled it all with amazing skill, but after bowing in awe to Bjorn Borg, who handed him his trophy, Kuerten finally was stumped when officials gave him a bottle of champagne to celebrate his stunning, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2, French Open victory over No. 16 seed and two-time champion Sergi Bruguera.

PARIS -- Iva Majoli blew through the French Open final like the fresh breeze that followed the morning rain here. The No. 9 seed, she was not expected to win this title. No ninth seed ever had. And against No. 1 Martina Hingis, who had won 37 straight matches, it appeared to be a daunting task.But the resourceful Majoli, 19, came with a game plan that kept Hingis, 16, on the run and won almost easily, 6-4, 6-2, in a quick 1 hour, 19 minutes. Not only did she overcome her Swiss opponent's shots, but her efforts at gamesmanship, too, as she held together during two delays while Hingis took a bathroom break and then a five-minute break to have a trainer come out to massage her legs.

PARIS -- Yevgeny Kafelnikov, who was told at 16 that he had no promise only to be chided at 20 for not living up to his talent, yesterday became the first Russian to win a Grand Slam title when he defeated Michael Stich in the French Open final, 7-6 (7-4), 7-5, 7-6 (7-4).The baseline brilliance of Kafelnikov, 22, seeded sixth, proved too much trouble for the 15th-seeded Stich to handle.Stich's 15 aces didn't save him and his feeble rate of success on first serves skewered him on the sun-kissed Center Court of Roland Garros, a stadium Kafelnikov first visited and became enamored of when he was "a 13-year-old nobody" and the non-playing fifth wheel on the junior team of the former Soviet Union.

PARIS -- Stefan Edberg, loath to retire without a French Open title to balance out his Grand Slam collection, still has Paris.Yesterday at the French Open, where 88-degree sunshine sent more than one fair weather spectator to the hospital, Edberg kept his cool against a long-haired Spanish hotshot in a headband.Edberg, 30, using a game of serve-and-volley on Center Court, trampled 20th-ranked Carlos Moya, 6-2, 6-2, 6-1."I think it was one of those days where everything that you do turns into gold; I felt like I was 20 today," said Edberg, who received a standing ovation when he left the court.