About 11,000 fewer fans attended this year's Legg Mason Tennis Classic, primarily due to the newly implemented scheduling change, tournament officials said yesterday. Unlike years past — when two sessions were held Monday through Friday beginning at 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. — the 1998 tournament was scheduled to have one session each day, starting at 4 p.m. and ending around midnight. With four fewer sessions than last year, the attendence at the William H.G. FitzGerald Tennis Center dropped to 69,594.

"We knew that when we eliminated four sessions, we were going to reduce the number of people that came to the gates," tournament director Ivan Blumberg said. "We were prepared to take that hit if we were going to have a better event. No matter what day you came out, you saw some great matches."

Some fans, however, were not pleased about the ticket refund policy, particularly since Tuesday's session was canceled before the feature matches began and two-time defending champion Michael Chang withdrew before his semifinal Saturday.

"Certainly, when you have a walkover in the semifinals and a canceled session due to an act of God, you're going to have some unhappy people," Blumberg said. "But I think the vast majority of the people recognized that we did everything possible to put on the best event possible."

Blumberg said he was particularly pleased with the way the players reacted to the delays, defaults and midnight sessions. In particular, he was grateful toward Scott Draper, who advanced to the final because Chang withdrew with an injury, and the doubles teams that cut short their preparations to play what became Saturday night's feature match.

"It was incredibly accommodating for the doubles teams to change their entire preparation schedules and still get out and play an incredible match," Blumberg said of Mike and Bob Bryan, and South Africans Kevin Ullyett and Grant Stafford, who played a semifinal that went the maximum three sets Saturday night. "At the same time, Scott Draper literally came to me to say, 'Listen mate, what can I do to help?' Knowing we were in a bind, and recognizing that he had a championship match to play the next day, he could have gone home at 7 o'clock."

Instead, Draper played an exhibition match against NCAA singles champion Bob Bryan following the doubles semifinal.

Doubling Their Pleasure
Stafford and Ullyett won their third doubles title of the year yesterday, defeating American Patrick Galbraith and South African Wayne Ferreira, 6-2, 6-4. Ullyett and Stafford attacked their opponents' serves and covered the court well with their quick reflexes and teamwork. Earlier this year, Stafford and Ullyett won at Coral Springs and Orlando, both clay court tournaments. "Winning the first hard court tournament of the summer is a good start for us," Stafford said. "I think this was our best match of the year."

Wheelchair Champions
Caroline Fearing Ritter of Allentown, Pa., won the Nation's Capital Wheelchair Tennis Tournament women's title for the third straight year, defeating Svi Zee of New York, 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-1). In the men's final, Eric Converse of Falls Church beat defending champion Todd Cox of Fairfax, 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (7-5). Cox and Converse won the men's doubles title, defeating Robbie Thomas and Rob Boyd, both of Fredericksburg, 6-3, 7-6 (8-6).