American Jim Courier in action during his first-round Italian Open victory against Pete Sampras.

ROME, May 14: Defending champion Thomas Muster tumbled out of the Italian Open second round here today in a shock 7-6 (7/4), 5-7, 7-5 victory for Australian underdog Scott Draper.

A day after top seeds Pete Sampras and Michael Chang were dumped out of the tournament, third seeded Muster was outgunned by the 21-year-old from Brisbane in a three-hour marathon in searing 32 degrees celcius heat.

Muster was then followed out by the man he beat in last year's final, Richard Krajicek, as Germany's Marc-Kevin Goellner beat the fifth seeded Dutchman 7-6 (8/6), 7-6 (7/1).

Draper, ranked only 75 in the world but who knocked out German Open winner Andrei Medvedev in the previous round, made the decisive break to lead 6-5 in the third set when Muster double faulted.

He then served out for the match, shattering Muster's hopes of becoming the first man to win this tournament four times.

Having de-throned the `King of Clay', Draper now faces either Britain's Tim Henman or Italian qualifier Davide Scala for a place in the quarter-finals.

Jim Courier meanwhile followed up his victory over Sampras by beating Spain's Albert Portas 7-6 (7/5), 6-2.

Courier, who won this tournament in 1992 and 1993, faced some determined resistence in the first set, which the big-serving American could have wrapped up much sooner. He had set point at 40-30 and 5-4 on Portas' serve, but the opportunity went begging. As they headed into the tie-break `Big Red' took a 5-1 lead, but had it cut to 6-5 before finally taking the set.

He cruised through the second set, breaking early for a 2-0 lead and again for 5-2 on his way to victory. Unseeded here after a fall in the rankings, Courier now meets either Switzerland's Marc Rosset or Spanish qualifier Emilio Alvarez for a place in the quarter-finals.

Hernan Gumy, who like Courier had caused a major upset yesterday by beating Chang, had no such luck in the second round. The Argentine went down 6-1, 6-4 to Spain's former double French Open winner, Sergi Bruguera.

Yesterday, Sampras and Chang, ranked No 1 and 2 in the world, lost in straight sets.

Sampras, who has always struggled on clay, was jeered in his error-filled 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 loss to Courier his second consecutive clay-court defeat this season.

Chang, who also prefers hard courts to clay, was ousted by the 54th-ranked Gumy 6-3, 6-2 for his second straight first-round loss on the slow surface.Escaping the upset trend were No. 4 seed Yevgeny Kafelnikov, No. 6 Goran Ivanisevic, No. 7 Marcelo Rios, No. 11 Boris Becker and No. 14 Tim Henman. But two top clay courters, No. 13 Felix Mantilla and Andrei Medvedev, were eliminated.

Not long ago, a Sampras-Courier match would have been a final. But Courier, a former two-time Italian and French Open champion, has dropped to No. 24 in the rankings and was unseeded this year.

``With Pete, I'd rather play him in the first round than later,'' Courier said. ``He gets more dangerous in the later rounds.''

Sampras said, ``this was the toughest draw either of us could have faced. Hopefully, it won't happen again at the French Open.''

In other matches, Becker, playing only his ninth match of the year while recovering from a wrist injury, saved a set point at 6-5 in the first set and powered to a 7-6 (7-3), 6-2 win over Italy's Andrea Gaudenzi.

Kafelnikov, the French Open champion still looking to regain his top form after a three-month layoff with a broken finger, edged Spain's Javier Sanchez 7-5, 7-6 (7-5).

Ivanisevic needed 10 match points -- four in the second set and six in the final game -- before finally subduing Australia's Mark Wooforde 6-2, 6-7 (10-8), 6-4.

Graf gains momentum

BERLIN: Steffi Graf cruised into the quarter-finals of the German Open today with a straight-sets win over 24-year-old Romanian Ruxandra Dragomir, the 15th seed.

The 6-3 6-2 victory was only Graf's second singles match after three months out with a knee injury, during which time she lost her world number one ranking to Swiss Martina Hingis.

Graf, chasing a record 10th Berlin title, had a bye in the first round of the Berlin tournament and beat American Chanda Rubin in three sets in the second round.

The top-seeded German was the first player to reach the quarter-finals of the $ 926,000 tournament.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.