Eye Of The Tiger

•Paris. After his crushing upset by the Yugoslav Goran Ivanisevic in the first round of the French Open, an honest Slam event that Becker honestly felt he could win, he entered the press room and praised everybody from the winner to the media translator to the host country so effusively that the room had to be sprayed for charm bugs. Among Becker's bons mots were:

"It isn't luck when the guy serves me off the court."

"I was feeling good. I had the advantage of rest."

"I guess I am now a history person again." (Becker and Edberg, who also lost in the first round, were the first one-two seeds ever to be eliminated in the opening round of a Grand Slam tournament. Becker's quote was reported worldwide as "I'm in the history books again," but Becker never, ever speaks in clichés.)

"I wanted to play well on the terre battue." (A few crumbs about red clay for the locals.)

"This is what a Grand Slam is all about." (Some crumbs for the baseball writers in the group. Well, O.K., he almost never, ever speaks in clichés.)

Becker was asked if public interest and attendance at the tournament would be affected by his and Edberg's losses. "The French Open has so much history; it is much bigger than any players," he said. "It is just, sadly, impossible for me to play my best in the first round."

Why? Becker was asked.

"One second, please," he said. "The girl must have time to translate that [into French]."

And you thought Warren Beatty oozed smooth?