Arias and Kriek Gain Alan King Tennis Final : Two Players Now on the Comeback Trail Will Square Off in Las Vegas Today

Through the preliminary rounds of the Alan King/Caesars Palace tennis tournament this week, the big news was the demise of the big names--everyone from Jimmy Connors to Pat Cash to Yannick Noah to Aaron Krickstein--in the scorching desert sun.

But during the semifinal round Saturday, an interesting subplot emerged--the resurrection of a couple of tennis careers that had presumably been approaching Death Valley depths.

Remember Jimmy Arias, the pint-size kid with the megaton forehand who stormed his way into the top five before his 20th birthday? Remember, then, how mononucleosis robbed his stamina, how arm ailments turned his baseline attack anemic and how his ranking gradually withered away to No. 30 by the spring of 1985?

Well, he’s back. He’s in his first tournament final since September, 1983. He got there by outlasting an upstart qualifier, Ken Flach, in two tense sets, 7-6, 7-5.

And Arias’ opponent for today’s showdown for the $80,000 first prize? None other than Johan Kriek, another blast from the past, a two-time (1981, 1982) Australian Open champion, who had failed to advance beyond the third round in any 1985 tournament.

Kriek beat Czechoslovakia’s Tomas Smid, 6-4, 6-3, to set up a championship final with a definite theme: Dueling Comebacks.

Both players are pleased to announce that the reports of their tennis deaths have been greatly exaggerated.

“People have tried to write me off for the past two years, that I’m past my peak,” Kriek said. “I’m still trying hard, playing hard, but I just haven’t run into any luck.

“Finally, things here have broken my way.”

Among them, the early upsets of Noah, Krickstein, second-seeded Kevin Curren and Sweden’s Stefan Edberg, leaving Kriek’s half of the draw depleted. En route to the final, Kriek had to face just two seeded players--No. 8 Tim Mayotte and No. 6 Smid.

“And it didn’t hurt,” Kriek said with a smile, “to have Connors out of the draw.”

Connors has been long gone, a first-round loser to Vijay Amritraj, who lost one day later to Flach. Flach, ranked No. 166 in world, seemed the logical favorite in this tournament--the longest shot in a great week for longshots.

But Arias had just enough to throw up a blockade against Flach. Arias himself had been involved in a pair of the tournament’s biggest stunners, three-set triumphs over fourth-seeded Pat Cash and fifth-seeded Eliot Teltscher.

Throw in another three-set victory over Russell Simpson and a total of five tiebreakers in four matches and Arias has taken about the longest road conceivable to the final.

“I’m trying to make everything as difficult as possible on myself this tournament,” said Arias, accompanied by a massive ice bag taped to his right arm. “I’ve been fighting back all week. Right now, I’m very mentally tired.”

But, Arias is back.

“I’m getting sick of reading ‘the slumping Jimmy Arias,’ ” he said. “It’s very easy on the way up--there’s no real pressure on you, I could hit out and play well. I got up to No. 5 in the world, winning all my close matches. I was on a roll.

“When I got sick (with mononucleosis), it broke the whole feeling. I was in bed for more than 2 1/2 months. Then, I may have made my comeback too soon. I started losing matches and as soon as that happens, you start losing confidence. Everybody’s saying, ‘What’s wrong with Jimmy Arias?’ and it plays on your mind.

“I used to read every result, every ranking and get depressed to see how I was slipping. I haven’t read a tennis magazine during the last 3-4 months. It’s not easy to see your ranking always going down.”

Arias may take a peek at a headline or two today. He demonstrated flashes of his old form in beating Flach, but it was more a testament to Arias’ intestinal fortitude.

In the first set tiebreaker, Arias opened leads of 5-0 and 6-1, only to let Flach slip back to tie--and eventually assume an 8-7 lead.

But Arias hung in to salvage the next three games and the set, winning the tiebreaker, 10-8.

“I toughed it out. That’s not easy to do,” Arias said. “If I had lost that (tiebreaker), I would have been finished.”

In the second set, Arias opened another lead, winning 12 of the first 13 points en route to a 3-0 advantage. But once again, Flach came back, forcing a 4-4 tie before Arias rallied for a final time.

“I should’ve put him away right there,” Arias said. “He was dejected after the tiebreaker. But I let him back in. I have to make things difficult for myself.”

Kriek had a somewhat easier time with Smid. After squeezing out a 6-4 first set, Kriek raced to a 5-0 lead in the second.

“I was so close to putting him away, that I started to panic,” Kriek said. “I was so far ahead, that your instincts tell you, ‘Geez, one more game and you’ve got this match.’

“Sometimes, it’s hard to fight your instincts. You have to battle them every minute. It gets to the point where you want to jump over the net and smash everything that comes off their racket.”

Kriek fared all right by sticking to conventional rules of tennis and sticking to his side of the net. He finished off Smid and only Arias stands in his path to the title.

The odds would tend to favor Kriek. Kriek owns a 2-0 career advantage over Arias and beat him three times within a week and a half last month in exhibition play.

“The match will be up to him,” Arias said. “I’m just gonna be out there running around. He’s either gonna hit winners or miss. I can only hope that he’ll miss.”