KAFELNIKOV IS LATEST TO FALL AT WIMBLEDON.

Byline: Steve Wilstein Associated Press 

Not even the new wonder boy of tennis could escape the worst carnage of top men at Wimbledon in the Open era.

Two weeks after winning his first Grand Slam title at the French Open, Yevgeny Kafelnikov double faulted 10 times Tuesday, saw two match points vanish in a blur of aces and fell to Tim Henman 7-6 (8-6), 6-3, 6-7 (7-2), 4-6, 7-5.

With the defeat of the fifth-seeded Kafelnikov, only No. 1 Pete Sampras, No. 2 Boris Becker and No. 4 Goran Ivanisevic remain of the top eight seeds.

Henman, thrown out of Wimbledon a year ago when he angrily smacked a ball that accidentally hit a ball girl in the head, closed out the greatest start by British men in 20 years, becoming the seventh Brit to reach the second round.

No Briton has won Wimbledon since Fred Perry in 1936, and probably none will go much farther this year. But for one day, at least, the Brits ruled on their home turf and a sports euphoria swept the nation on the eve of England's semifinal soccer match against Germany in the European Championships.

``This is absolutely brilliant,'' said Greg Rusedski, one of the seven British winners. ``Maybe it's the football that's doing it to us.''

No such surprises hit the women's draw. Defending champion and No. 1 seed Steffi Graf, showing no hint of the knee injury that had her limping two days earlier, sprinted fluidly and overcame the big serves of tall Ludmila Richterova to win 6-4, 6-1.

``I have to admit on Sunday afternoon I wasn't too sure about it,'' Graf said of the swollen tendon in her left kneecap that led her to pull out of a tuneup tournament. ``But then I really forced it yesterday, and it never came back. . . . I played up to three hours yesterday, which is unusual, especially the day before a match. But because I'm lacking a lot of practice, I'm just going to try to catch up.''

Former nine-time champion Martina Navratilova, working in the television booth for HBO, scoffed at Graf's health problems.

``The knee injury is just an excuse ahead of time just in case she needs it,'' Navratilova said. ``If you read the newspapers, you think she belongs in the hospital. If you look at her today, she's running like a gazelle.''

Joining Graf in the second round were No. 4 Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, No. 5 Anke Huber, No. 6 Jana Novotna, No. 9 Mary Joe Fernandez, No. 11 Brenda Schultz-McCarthy and No. 16 Martina Hingis.

Eluding the upsets in the men's draw were No. 9 Thomas Enqvist, No. 14 Marc Rosset, and No. 16 Cedric Pioline.

No match packed more emotion or more thrills than the duel between Henman, Britain's top player making his Centre Court debut, and Kafelnikov, a Russian who reached the quarterfinals a year ago.

Though ranked No. 62, Henman played with the confidence of a man who knew he had an upset within his grasp from the moment the match started. He grew up playing on grass, his mother is a member of the All England Club, and he had a feeling that Kafelnikov might be ripe for a letdown after winning the French.

``I think it's the best time to play someone like that - in the first round,'' Henman said. ``I knew that he's a very good player on any surface, but maybe grass wasn't one of his strongest surfaces, and it's a surface that I play well on. So I very much had belief that I could win the match.''

Henman's confidence didn't wane even when he found himself facing three set points after an ace by Kafelnikov made it 6-3 in the opening tiebreaker. Henman calmly captured the next five points, three of them on gifts of unforced errors and a double fault by Kafelnikov.

Henman cruised through the second set after an early break but wasted a huge opportunity to put away the match in straight sets when Kafelnikov double faulted to fall behind love-40 at 3-3.

``The pressure was on me in a way, because I was getting close to the finishing line, and then when you don't take those chances, self-doubts creep in,'' Henman said.

Kafelnikov fought back to hold serve, pushed the set to another tiebreaker, and this time won it easily after taking the first five points.

When Kafelnikov took the fourth set and grabbed a 5-3 lead in the fifth, with Henman double faulting to 15-40, the hopes of British fans for one big upset to cap a stellar day seemed all but gone.

That's when Henman shocked everyone, especially Kafelnikov, with a pair of aces to save the match points, and a pair of service winners to make it 5-4.

``It was timely to serve two aces from 15-40,'' Henman said with typical British understatement.

``I didn't respond well on those match points that I had,'' Kafelnikov said.

CAPTION(S):

Photo: Yevgeny Kafelnikov looks to the sky while in trouble on Centr e Court. Tim Henmen beat him.

Associated Press