Tennis Roundup : Tulasne, Arias Reach Clay Courts Semifinals

Top-seeded Thierry Tulasne of France and third-seeded Jimmy Arias won their quarterfinal matches Friday in the U.S. Open Clay Courts tennis championships at Indianapolis and will meet today in the semifinals.

In the other semifinal, second-seeded Andres Gomez of Ecuador will face fourth-seeded Martin Jaite of Argentina.

Tulasne eliminated 15th-seeded Brian Teacher of Los Angeles, 6-0, 6-2, then beat Eduardo Bengoechea of Argentina, 6-0, 6-4, in a quarterfinal match.

All of the quarterfinalists played two matches because of rainouts earlier in the week.

Arias defeated American Davis Cup teammate Aaron Krickstein, 6-4, 6-0, in the quarterfinals. Gomez beat Sweden’s Mikael Pernfors, 6-3, 7-5, and Jaite downed Jakob Hlasek of Switzerland, 6-2, 6-4.

Pernfors, two-time NCAA champion at the University of Georgia, earlier defeated 10th-seeded Guillermo Vilas of Argentina, 6-7, 7-6, 6-4, in a 3 1/2-hour match.

In women’s play, top-seeded Steffi Graf of West Germany led the advance into the semifinals, defeating Terry Phelps, 6-4, 6-3.

Top-seeded Ivan Lendl of Czechslovakia defeated unseeded Mike Leach, 6-3, 6-2, to advance to the semifinals of the Audi tournament at Ede, the Netherlands.

Also advancing were Stefan Edberg of Sweden, Miroslav Mecir of Czechoslovakia and Emilio Sanchez of Spain.

Joakim Nystrom, Anders Jarryd and Kent Carlsson of Sweden and Andres Maurer of West Germany advanced to the semifinals of the $80,000 Madrid Grand Prix tennis tournament at Madrid.

Nystrom, seeded No. 1, defeated Victor Pecci of Paraguay, 6-2, 7-5.