Different City, Same Bad Result for Rubin

Chanda Rubin’s two-week trip through Southern California featured injury, agony and foot faults . . . and not necessarily in that order.

Other than that, it was fine.

Her hopes for a turning point in a decidedly difficult 1997, in which her ranking has dropped from 18 to 33, took a downturn after consecutive first-round defeats. The latest was a 6-4, 6-2 loss in 65 minutes to Sandrine Testud of France on Monday night at the Acura Classic at the Manhattan Country Club in Manhattan Beach.

Certainly it wasn’t as unpleasant as last week’s event at San Diego, when Rubin sprained her right ankle against Helena Sukova and had to default in the second set, hobbling off the court to the hospital for precautionary X-rays and then spending a day and a half on crutches.

Rubin, 21, maintained the ankle was not a factor, rather, pointing to a handful of foot faults as one of the big problems. “That’s really sick,” she said. “Not even giving yourself the chance to get the serve in play.”

Though Rubin had handled Testud with ease twice this year, the 25-year-old French player gained confidence after securing the first set, getting the service break in the ninth game when Rubin double-faulted.

“Everything went downhill in the second set,” said Rubin, who is from Lafayette, La. “I never took control when I had the opportunity.”

The fast-improving Testud has climbed from 41 in the world to 19, a career high. She beat Monica Seles at Wimbledon in the third round, 0-6, 6-4, 8-6, and won a clay-court tournament at Palermo this summer.

Her victory against Rubin means a second-round match against Seles here.

“I hope [Seles] is not going to kill me,” Testud said, laughing. “I saw her not much in San Diego, but I think she’s playing pretty good. She got to the final, it means she still alive, she’s still playing good tennis.”

Only two players ranked in the top 20 took the court in opening-round action--Testud and Sabine Appelmans of Belgium. Yayuk Basuki of Indonesia defeated the 20th-ranked Appelmans, 3-6, 7-6 (7-3), 6-1.

Basuki, who reached the semifinals here in 1995, finished the match with an ace down the middle, one of seven she recorded.

Also advancing were Ai Sugiyama of Japan and Anne Sidot of France. In the final round of qualifying, Magui Serna of Spain beat Serena Williams, 15, the younger sister of Venus, 7-6 (8-6), 4-6, 6-3.

“I wasn’t used to the ball [Serna] was hitting--it had a lot of spin and it was really hard for me to control,” said Serena Williams, who saved three match points before losing. “And I lost control. I didn’t stay calm.”

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Acura Classic

TODAY’S FEATURED MATCHES

Beginning 10 a.m.

* No. 5 Arantxa Sanchez Vicario vs.

Naoko Sawamatsu

* No. 7 Irina Spirlea vs.

Natasha Zvereva

Beginning 7 p.m.

* No. 6 Anke Huber vs.

Anna Kournikova

* Venus Williams vs. Ann Grossman