PARIS -- Pete Sampras was painlessly hounded out of another French Open -- feet slipping, strokes flying, mind wandering, head hanging -- by none other than Galo Blanco, which is not the new tourist vineyard in Sonoma Valley but one of those tough little Spanish varmints who make their living gritting out marathons on the bronze clay, not to mention embarrassing legendary harder-court champions while they're at it.

Blanco's French Open experience has been more red than white; No. 76 on the ranking list, this was only the second time he had advanced past the second round in six appearances in Paris. However, he's had a bountiful spring -- beating countryman Juan Carlos Ferrero in Monte Carlo last month. Blanco is one of only two players this year to beat Ferrero (one of the favorites here) on clay.

Blanco drove Sampras plain loco, doing everything but blanking him, in fact, to the tune of 7-6, 6-3, 6-2, confirming a suspicion that European dirt-kickers lick chops and draw straws just as soon as Sampras' name comes up in the Roland Garros locker room.

"I feel over the course of my career, I've done everything I possibly could to do well here," said a forlorn Sampras, who in his last five Frenches has won exactly five matches. "... Tried different schedules, tried playing a lot of clay, a little bit less on clay. So far, nothing's happened ... It's frustrating. ... It feels crappy."

The other half of America's veteran A&P twins felt much better, Andre Agassi making clean work of France's 73rd-ranked Julien Boutter -- nobody said "like butter" although they should have -- while losing only seven games. "Pete's great at turning an entire point around with one shot," Agassi said. "But on clay you can't. You have to fight off three or four, then slowly turn the point around, then slowly finish it ... But I think Pete's done an incredible job with his game. It speaks for itself. When we go to the grass, he'll get everybody's attention again."

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Question Of The Day: To a devastated Sampras after he'd just been eliminated early from another Grand Slam. "Did you catch any of the Roddick-Chang match last night? Can you tell us your pick for Roddick-Hewitt?"

Reporters say the damndest things.

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Answer Of The Day: After Anthony Dupuis, 28, upset both Nicolas Escude and Tommy Haas, he was in the third round of only his second major. Dupuis was a junior phenom in the Biarritz region of France before squandering his talent on, shall we say, the finer things in life. "You were so great so young," the bearded boulevardier was asked, "why were you unable to keep it rolling?"

"When one stumbles out of the discoteque at 6 a.m. every morning," said Dupuis, "it's tough to keep it rolling."

Curry Kirkpatrick, a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine, first covered the French Open in 1976. E-mail him at curry.kirkpatrick@espnmag.com.