SOME things never change. The New York Mets appoint a new coach this week and still lose; Bob Dole makes yet another uncharismatic speech; South Africa's Wayne Ferreira enters a Grand Slam with rich promise of success and promptly goes down the Swannee.

The South African, currently ranked number seven and seeded ninth at the US Open, arrived at Flushing Meadow having won more matches than anyone on the American bard court circuit this summer, including victory in the Canadian Open. It was a recipe for disaster.

Yesterday morning, in the first round of the US he lost to Nainkin 4-6, 4-6, 6-2, 5-7. Nainkin, ranked a paltry 21, had never previously won a solitary Grand Slam match and prior to qualifying for these championships had lost nine consecutive matches.

The two players frequently practice together. Perhaps familiarity bred contempt, or at least complacency, in Ferreira's mind.

Night time did not appear to be the right time for either Steffi Graf or Goran Ivanisevic who, under the glare of floodlights and the heady aroma of hot dogs, hamburgers, and pizzas, found themselves struggling.

In the evening the thwack of racket on ball vies mightily with the chomp of a thousand jaws. The attention span of the average fan at Flushing Meadow, particularly in the evening, is not huge and silence is a foreign word.

Ivanisevic has never progressed beyond the fourth round at the US Open and for the past two years has gone out in the first round. There seemed every possibility of an ignominious hat-trick against Russia's Andrei Chesnokov who took the first set 6-1.

The demons in Ivanisevic's head were unloosed; his eyes leaped from left to right with manic gleam; words, unrecognisable to all but fellow Croatians, spilled from his mumbling lips. In America all things are possible and Cbesnokov must have believed it.

There was no noticeable sign of any psychiatrist in the shadow of the umpire's chair as Ivanisevic sat down at the end of the first set. Yet when he stood-up again the devils had been banished and so was Chesnokov. The "Goran, Goran, Gone" headlines were binned.

The best time to beat Graf is at the beginning of a Grand Slam tournament, and this only happens once in a blue moon. Eyes were raised to the skies to check for colour when Indonesia's Yayuk Basuki gained a 5-2 lead in the second set.

But the harvest moon was its usual lambent silvery-yellow and so it was that Graf went on to win 6-3, 7-6, although Basuki squandered a 4-1 lead in the tie-break.

The black-bat night landed on the shoulders of Britain's Greg Rusedski in the shape of Hendrik Dreekmann and plunged the British number 2 into even greater darkness.

The 21-year-old German was on top of his game against Rusedski who has never won at Flushing Meadow and never gave a hint of doing so again this time, losing 6-2, 6-4, 6-2.

He still holds the record for the fastest recorded serve (137mph) on the ATP Tour.