The French player was trailing Australia's Scott Draper 6-3, 1-1 and was down 0-40 in the third game of the second set yesterday when he was ejected for verbal abuse.

ATP Tour officials said Pioline used a strong four-letter word in arguing a call with umpire Pedro Bravo.

"I don't remember what I said to the umpire but when you get fed up you don't send flowers, you're not happy," Pioline said.

The crowd booed Pioline when he walked off the court after being ejected by tournament supervisor Gerry Armstrong.

"I don't want to say what he said but it was verbal abuse," Armstrong said. "It was said in French but the umpire understands French."

Pioline, who reached the semifinals at the French Open last month, is seeded eighth for Wimbledon starting next week.

He faces a heavy fine for the incident and also loses whatever prize money he would have earnedfrom the tournament and gets zero points for computer rankings. Pioline claimed the default was unfair.

Graf beaten

EASTBOURNE: Steffi Graf's preparations for her Wimbledon comeback took a wrong turn on Thursday when she was beaten by Russian teenager Anna Kournikova at the Eastbourne grass-court tournament.

Graf was beaten 7-6, 3-6, 4-6 in the quarter-finals of the $450,000 event by the sixth-seeded Kournikova.

Kafelnikov out

ROSMALEN: Yevgeni Kafelnikov, No 7 seed at Wimbledon next week, tumbled out of the Heineken Open Grass Court yesterday, beaten 5-7, 2-6 by American Steve Campbell.

The Russian, seeded No 2 here and coming off a victory in the Halle, Germany tourney last week, played well below his best in the second set of his first-round match against the unseeded Campbell.

And in the women's WTA event here, American Kimberley Po knocked top-seeded South African Amanda Coetzer out 6-4, 6-2.

But American No 7 seed Corina Moriariu went down to Dutchwoman Kristie Boogert,4-6, 6-2, 7-5.

Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.