Tennis Roundup : Arias Plays Ecuador’s Gomez in Opening Davis Cup Match

Jimmy Arias of the United States will meet Andres Gomez, Ecuador’s top player, today in the first match of Davis Cup tennis competition at Guayaquil, Ecuador.

Gomez is ranked 16th in the world and Arias 19th.

Thursday’s drawing also matched American Aaron Krickstein against Raul Viver in the second singles.

The winner of this series will advance to the next round against the survivor of the competition between West Germany and Mexico being played this weekend in Mexico City.

In Saturday’s doubles, the U.S. team of Ken Flach and Roberto Seguso will take on Gomez and Ricardo Ycaza. The reverse singles matches are set for Sunday.

The top four players, including No. 1-seeded Martina Navratilova and defending champion Hana Mandlikova, advanced to the quarterfinals of the $150,000 U.S. Women’s Indoor championships at Piscataway, N.J.

The closest an unseeded player came to beating one of the favorites was when Terry Phelps forced No. 4-seeded Helena Sukova into a first-set tiebreaker before losing, 7-6, 6-0.

Navratilova, seeking her fourth title in the tournament, needed only 47 minutes to dispose of Alycia Moulton, 6-1, 6-3.

In night matches, the No. 2-seeded Mandlikova got even for last week’s loss to Kathy Jordan with a 6-3, 6-4 victory, and No. 3-seeded Pam Shriver beat Dianne Fromholtz Balestrat, 6-2, 6-4.

In today’s semifinals, Navratilova will meet her long-time doubles partner, Shriver, while Mandlikova will face Sukova.