Sampras, Edberg Advance

WIMBLEDON, England -- Titleholder Pete Sampras outgunned a near-neighbor from his own home town in a successful start to the defense of his Wimbledon title Monday. The top-seeded American eliminated Jared Palmer 7-6 (7-4), 7-5, 6-3 in a battle between two 22-year-old adopted sons of the city of Tampa, Florida. Sampras saved two set points in the first set and was generally in control after that. The world No. 1 overcame the strong serve-and-volley game of his opponent with an even stronger performance on serve himself as he hammered in a total of 25 aces on the way to victory. He set up a second-round encounter with American, Richey Reneberg, who gave himself a shot at the champion with a 7-6 (7-5), 6-3, 7-6 (7-5) victory over compatriot Jonathan Canter. Three-time champion Boris Becker, the seventh seed, overcame a potentially difficult examination in fine style against tall American David Wheaton, a semifinalist in 1991 but a struggler against injury since then. Becker, 26, won 6-2, 6-4, 6-3 in just under two hours, serving 16 aces. Third-seeded Stefan Edberg, a champion twice, overcame stubborn South African lefthander Ellis Ferreira 6-2, 7-6 (7-3), 6-4 after one of the most bizarre sets of the day. Edberg trailed 5-1 in the second set and had to save four set points just to hold serve in the seventh game. He then broke Ferreira to love, held serve to reach 5-4 then saved two more set points in the 10th game as Ferreira double- faulted three successive times to lose the game. At 5-5, Edberg dropped serve again. Ferreira trailed 15-40 on his serve, got to deuce, squandered a seventh set point and then dropped the game on another double fault. Edberg won the first three points of the tiebreak and took it 7-3.The 10th and 11th seeds, American Michael Chang and Czech Petr Korda, both won their opening matches in straight sets. nOn Saturday, the turbulent off-court life of Mary Pierce was clouded in more mystery as she sensationally pulled out of Wimbledon less than 48 hours before the start of the event. The 19-year-old French player, seeded seventh for the tournament, delivered the stunning news to tournament officials, explaining in a statement later that she had pulled out "for reasons far beyond my control."By reaching the French Open final last month, the tall, blonde-haired Pierce became the potential new star the women's event is seen to need and the sudden and enigmatic manner of her withdrawal immediately set off speculation that her disruptive American father, Jim, was the cause. Until this year, the Canadian-born, U.S.-raised Pierce looked to be just another promising young player. But things changed dramatically last year after her father and one-time coach was forcibly ejected from the French Open for causing a disturbance. A permanent split between him and the rest of the family followed, which Mary Pierce gave as a major factor in her peace of mind and performance on court as she raced to the final at Roland Garros last month.