Reneberg Might Be Hitting the Big Time : Tennis: No. 48 player advances to fourth round with solid ground strokes and plays No. 9 Todd Martin next.

By BILL DWYRE

Sept. 4, 1994 12 AM PT

TIMES SPORTS EDITOR

NEW YORK — Four seeded players won, two lost and unseeded Richey Reneberg continued to prove that his opening-night stunner in the U.S. Open over Boris Becker shouldn’t have been that stunning after all.

Reneberg dropped a first set to Richard Fromberg of Australia and then, hitting the ball as solidly and consistently as anybody in the men’s bracket, ran through Fromberg, 2-6, 6-1, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2.

“It feels great,” said No. 48-ranked Reneberg, 28, who has won 10 doubles titles in his career, including the 1992 U.S. Open.

“At the beginning of the year--last couple of years, I really wanted to play better in the Grand Slams. I’d feel confident in the regular tour events but always fell short in the Grand Slams.”

His victory on the grandstand court Saturday earned him a spot in the round of 16 against No. 9 Todd Martin, who defeated Patrick Rafter of Australia in the night session, 7-5, 6-3, 6-7 (7-3), 6-2. Reneberg and Martin have split their four matches.

Besides Martin, other seeded men winning were No. 3 Sergei Bruguera of Spain, who was forced to five sets by Marc Goellner of Germany; No. 6 Michael Chang, who got a break when Jim Grabb had to retire in the second set because of a sore shoulder, and No. 13 Thomas Muster of Austria. Losing were No. 12 Wayne Ferreira of South Africa, who went out quickly to Andre Agassi, and No. 15 Marc Rosset of Switzerland, who lost in five sets to Bernd Karbacher of Germany.

“I was seeded, and Agassi wasn’t,” Ferreira said, “but if I had to pick a favorite going into that match, I would have picked him.”

The only women’s casualty was No. 6 Lindsay Davenport. No. 1 Steffi Graf of Germany, No. 4 Mary Pierce of France, No. 7 Jana Novotna of the Czech Republic, No. 10 Zina Garrison Jackson, No. 11 Amanda Coetzer of South Africa (11) and No. 15 Magdalena Maleeva of Bulgaria advanced.

Graf gave her supporters a scare when she had a nosebleed during practice, but she was fine in her match against Radka Bobkova of the Czech Republic, winning in straight sets. Pierce, Novotna, Coetzer and Maleeva did the same; Garrison Jackson was stretched to a third-set tiebreaker, 7-1.

Notes

The attendance stayed near the 20,000 mark per session for the seventh consecutive day here. The afternoon, when additional grounds passes are sold, drew 22,830; the evening 20,572.

Judith Weisner of Austria made only two of 15 break-point opportunities against Mary Pierce.

Richey Reneberg, when asked if he felt on the verge of breaking into the top level of the game: “Not really. And if I did, at 28, I’d be kind of a late bloomer.”