BARCELONA ’92 OLYMPICS : Becker Sweats Out Victory : Tennis: He needs five sets to dispatch a 19-year-old whose previous highlight was a junior tournament.

BARCELONA —  His name is Christian Ruud. He’s 19 and plays his tennis in Norway, where they don’t play much. And he was scared Tuesday.

“Was I intimidated? Was I nervous?” he asked rhetorically in the aftermath. “Of course I was. I had never before been on such a big court, with such a big crowd, or against such a big name.”

The big name was Boris Becker, winner of three Wimbledon titles and nearly $10 million in prize money on the pro tennis tour. The big court and the big crowd? Center Court on the first day of the Olympic tennis tournament.

This wasn’t going to be the Dream Team vs. Angola. It was going to be worse.

But five sets, and 4 hours 42 minutes after it started, it was nothing of the sort. Becker eventually won, 3-6, 7-6 (7-2), 5-7, 7-6 (7-2), 6-3. But it was a fairly fizzled Becker who, having barely survived in temperatures reaching 110 degrees at court level on clay, his least-favorite surface made even more difficult by a swirling wind, greeted reporters with the obvious summary afterward.

“It was an experience,” he said.

Ruud is ranked 312th in the world, 307 spots behind Becker. And it’s hard to understand how Ruud got that high.

His career winnings total $3,125. The highlight page of his biography, the same page that shows Becker with 33 singles, 12 doubles and five Grand Slam titles, should have been left blank. Instead, it lists all the facts: Singles titles: 0; doubles titles: 0; Grand Slam titles: Australian, never played; French, never played; Wimbledon, never played; U.S. Open, never played.

When asked what his tennis highlight had been, before Becker in Barcelona, Ruud replied, without hesitation: “I guess it was the Orange Bowl juniors a few years ago in Miami, when I made the quarters.”

Becker traditionally starts slowly, traditionally plays on clay as if he’s not quite sure what he is supposed to do out there, and traditionally gets himself in trouble in an early-round match. But this one loomed as a first-round yawner if ever there was one.

And yet Becker, ever fretting and worrying and babbling to himself in German over missed shots and poor shot selections, found his bombs being handled nicely by Ruud. Becker was actually down, 4-2, in the fourth set, and was even in a bit of trouble at 1-1 and break point twice in the fifth before his superior conditioning prevailed in the end against the emotionally drained and exhausted Ruud.

“I could sense in the fourth set, and clearly in the fifth, that he was getting very tired,” Becker said. “I guess the one good thing that came out of this is I know I can last four or five hours.”

While Becker was struggling, Jim Courier of the United States, playing consistently despite some emotional family news, defeated Ramesh Krishnan of India, 6-2, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4.

Monday, Courier had learned that his maternal grandfather, Tim Spencer of Sanford, Fla., had suffered a paralyzing stroke. Courier’s mother and sister, here to watch the top-seeded, No. 1 player in the world compete in the Olympics, left Tuesday to return home to Dade City, Fla.

In other featured matches Tuesday, top-seeded Steffi Graf of Germany defeated Lupita Novelo of Mexico, a former USC player, 6-1, 6-1; local favorite Emilio Sanchez beat Australia’s Todd Woodbridge, 6-1, 7-6 (7-1), 6-2, and Wimbledon finalist Goran Ivanisevic of Croatia, coasting against Bernardo Mota of Portugal, ended up barely escaping, 6-2, 6-2, 6-7 (7-5), 4-6, 6-3.