Tennis Roundup : Krickstein, Arias Gain Quarterfinals on Clay

Second-seeded Aaron Krickstein advanced to the quarterfinals of the U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship at Isle of Palms, S.C., on a windy afternoon Thursday with a 6-1, 6-0 victory over Argentina’s Christian Miniussi.

In other second-round matches, seventh-seeded Jimmy Arias defeated Peru’s Jaime Yzaga, 7-6, 6-2, and Jim Courier eliminated Spain’s Diego Perez, 6-1, 6-2.

Krickstein, who won in 52 minutes, said he felt Miniussi got “rattled” by the wind.

“I kind of felt the wind was to my advantage,” Krickstein said. “I think it hurt him a lot more than it hurt me.”

Arias struggled in the first set before beating Yzaga in 1 hour 15 minutes.

“I never felt in charge of the match,” Arias said. “I never felt secure out there on the court.”

Arias will meet Krickstein in one of four matches today. In other matchups, top-seeded Andre Agassi, who turns 18 today, meets Richey Reneberg; Courier plays Argentina’s Horacio de la Pena, and fourth-seeded Jay Berger takes on Lawson Duncan.

Boris Becker of West Germany defeated Tom Nijssen of the Netherlands, 6-2, 6-4, in a third-round match of the $602,500 West German championships at Hamburg.

Becker will play Guillermo Perez-Roldan in today’s quarterfinals.

“I am fit and have great confidence,” said Perez-Roldan, who eliminated fellow Argentine Francisco Yunis, 7-6, 6-1. “Becker is a very well-rounded player, but he is not invincible.”

In other matches, Kent Carlsson of Sweden beat Tore Meinecke of West Germany, 6-4, 6-2; Henri Leconte of France beat Hansjoerg Schwaier of West Germany, 7-5, 2-6, 7-6, and Guillermo Vilas of Argentina ousted Darren Cahill of Australia, 6-3, 4-6, 6-1.

Top-seeded Pam Shriver needed only 46 minutes to defeat Leila Meskhi of the Soviet Union, 6-0, 6-2, in the second round of a $300,000 women’s tournament at Tokyo.

Earlier, Mareen Harper defeated Patty Fendick, 3-6, 6-2, 6-3, and Anne Minter of Australia beat Gigi Fernandez, 1-6, 6-4, 6-2.

Martina Navratilova has withdrawn from the Italian Open, which starts Monday at Rome. No reason was given by the International Assn. of Women Tennis Players, which informed the tournament that Navratilova would not compete.