Tennis: Edberg gets back into his stride: Swede takes a tentative step towards a full set of Grand Slam titles

THE only shock at the French Open here yesterday was when a pysiotherapist arrived on the Centre Court to treat Stefan Edberg. The application of spray to the player's groin worked wonders, relieving us of one of those Edberg jinx stories.

Instead, a tournament shorn of so many leading men can look forward to a confrontation in the quarter-finals between one of the game's classical serve and volleyers and Andrei Medvedev, the outstanding young prospect who gains most of his points from the baseline.

Edberg limped to his chair when leading 4-3 in the opening set of his fourth round match against Paul Haarhuis, a Dutchman with a reputation for unsettling big-name opponents. The Swedish third seed was back into his stride, winning 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6.

'I asked for the spray as a precaution, and after a couple of games I could run at full speed for the rest of the match, so it wasn't a problem,' Edberg said.

Edberg is playing in his 40th consecutive Grand Slam, and the French title would complete his set. Medvedev has not previously advanced as far as a quarter-final, and yesterday it was a question of whether he or Marc Gollner, the German prospect, would achieve the breakthrough. The 18-year-old Ukrainian took the opportunity, 6-4, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.

Before turning his thoughts to the serious business on court tomorrow, Medvedev used a television interview to remind the organisers of a tournament he won in Bordeaux last September that he had not received the 600 bottles of red wine he had been promised.

'I don't think I will drink them, I will just give them to friends,' he said. With luck the consignment will arrive soon. It has not been a vintage men's tournament so far.

Still, we are left with three attacking players in the draw, Edberg being accompanied by Pete Sampras, the top seed, and the Dutch hope, Richard Krajicek. Jim Courier continued to batter impressively from the back court, subduing the Austrian Thomas Muster, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4,

6-2.

The quarter-final line-up is: Sampras v Bruguera, Edberg v Medvedev, Krajicek v Karel Novacek, Goran Prpic v Courier.

An advertising mural of Courier covers eight storeys of the side of a building in Porte d'Auteuil, not far from the courts at Roland Garros. The defending champion may not be so big today in the eyes of the International Tennis Federation.

The ITF's world champions dinner here this evening will take place without the guests of honour. Monica Seles is in Colorado, recovering from a stab wound, and Courier cannot be bothered to cross the city to be honoured. He is in Paris, he said, to try to win the championship, not to socialise.

Courier is due to play his quarter-final match today. If the American wins, he will have two days to prepare for Friday's semi-finals. It is not as if Courier is being asked to carouse the night away. Some past world champions with matches scheduled the following day have not even stayed for dinner, but they at least turned up for the presentation. Seles and Steffi Graf number among them.

John McEnroe and Ivan Lendl interrupted grass-court practice in England to travel to receive the trophy. Boris Becker declined to return from London to join Graf at the dinner after his first-round defeat here in 1990.

The current French championships mark the 25th anniversary of open tennis, a transformation which has led to the proliferation of multi-millionaire players. The pace of the game has changed, along with the attitude towards tradition of the some of the leading participants.

Fred Perry, who was a panelist when the world champions were selected by former players, rather than taken from the ITF rankings lists, considers that the trophy should be withheld from players who decline to attend the dinner without a reasonable excuse.

Mind you, Perry would not have been impressed, either, by what he saw when he peered over a wall on Court Three yesterday. James Baily, who revived British interest by winning the junior title at the Australian Open in January, was slumping to a first round defeat in the boys' event here.

Baily, No 17 in the junior rankings, was beaten, 6-4, 6-1, by Lars Burgsmuller, of Germany, who is listed 47 places below him and is a year younger. Defeats for Tom Spinks and Lorna Woodroffe followed to complete a sorry story. In the entire tournament, Britain's five participants in singles events won only one set between them, man, woman and children.

Results, page 33