French Open : Arias Withdraws; Noah Edges Benhabiles

Top-seeded Martina Navratilova easily moved into the second round Tuesday, while Jimmy Arias, America’s top clay-court player, pulled out of the French Open tennis championships.

And, in the climactic match of the day, Yannick Noah, the 1983 French Open champion, outlasted fellow Frenchman Tarik Benhabiles in a five-set battle on the red clay center court at Roland Garros stadium.

After 3 hours 48 minutes, Noah won, 6-3, 6-4, 6-7, 6-7, 6-4.

Besides Arias, who withdrew with a sprained ankle suffered during an exhibition match Sunday, three seeded players lost on the second day of this two-week tournament. Peru’s Laura Gildemeister ousted 15th-seeded Anne White of the United States, 6-1, 6-3; No. 6 Joakim Nystrom of Sweden fell to Australia’s Paul McNamee, 1-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-0; and West Germany’s Damir Keretic eliminated No. 16 Heinz Gunthardt of Switzerland, 4-6, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6, 8-6.

In women’s singles, Navratilova mastered the swirling winds and her opponent, beating Sandra Cecchini of Italy, 6-3, 6-3; No. 5 Hana Mandlikova of Czechoslovakia edged Yugoslavaia’s Sabina Goles, 6-7, 6-3, 6-3; and No. 4 Claudia Kohde-Kilsch of West Germany beat American Lori McNeil, 6-4, 6-1.

Among the men, defending champion and second-seeded Mats Wilander of Sweden eliminated Chile’s Ricardo Acuna, 6-0, 4-6, 6-1, 6-1, and No. 8 Henri Leconte of France defeated David De Miguel of Spain, 6-3, 6-1, 6-3.

Noah almost met his match against the 21-year-old Benhabiles, a native of Algeria who lives in Paris. After breezing through the first two sets, Noah, visibly tiring as the warm sunshine gave way to chilly winds and, at the very end, a light sprinkle, held on to move into the next round.

With a rifle-shot for a forehand, Benhabiles captured the third-set tiebreaker, 7-3, then fought off one match point to win the fourth-set tiebreaker, 10-8. In that tiebreaker, until the final point, no more than one point separated the two players.

“I played too loose, and he started coming back,” Noah said of the third set, when he ran off the first three games. “I had trouble with my long game, and he put pressure on my serve.

“I went to a different state of mind. I played sloppily. I thought I would win it quickly, and when he came back, I fought it. When I was at match point and he won the point, I just said to myself, ‘Try, try, try again.’ ”

By the fifth set, the crowd was cheering both players and repeatedly had to be quieted by the umpire.

“Yannick, Yannick,” one side of the stands would chant.

“Tarik, Tarik,” came the reply from the other side.

On the court, the two combatants were equal to the task, firing incredible winners one after the other, Benhabiles usually with his powerful forehand, usually cross-court, while Noah utilized his superb athletic skill as he dove for balls or sharply angled a volley.

During the final changeover, with Noah leading, 5-4, and preparing to serve for the match, the crowd stood and cheered, the level of the noise raising when the two players returned to the court.

Behabiles won the first point when Noah netted a forehand. But the No. 4-seeded player pulled even when Benhabiles sailed a backhand down the line long.

At 40-15, Noah had his second match point, and again his rival rose to the occasion, ripping a service return cross-court that Noah could only get his racket on. That brought up match point No. 3, and Noah punctuated the match with his 16th ace of the day.

Arias, ironically, hurt his ankle while playing Benhabiles. When he was called for his match against Mexico’s Francisco Maciel, he withdrew from the tournament.

“It’s disappointing because I was hitting the ball well,” Arias said. “I’ve been working real hard for three months for this tournament. But the doctors say if I twisted it again, I might be out for three months.”

Seeking her third French Open singles title, Navratilova traded service breaks with Cecchini in the third and fourth games of the first set. The world’s top women’s player then won the next three games en route to taking the first set.

Cecchini started the second set with an ace, her first of five in the match, but dropped her serve after the two battled through five deuces.

The two then held serve until the seventh game when Navratilova broke the Italian right-hander again, this time at 15, as she just increased the pressure, taking the net at every chance and hitting seemingly impossible-angled volleys.

That made the second set 5-2 and Navratilova served for the match.

“At 5-2, she played a fine game,” Navratilova said of her opponent, who broke her serve at 30, the final point coming on a double-fault.

But Navratilova broke right back to close out the match.

“I was attacking the ball,” Navratilova said. “I’m pretty happy.”

She was not happy, however, about press reports in the United States of her crying after her loss nine days ago to Steffi Graf in the final of the German Open.

“I don’t cry over losing a match,” she said. “You didn’t see me cry last year when I lost in the (French Open) final to Chris (Evert Lloyd), did you?”

The reason for the tears, she said, was that her family was not together.

“My parents were watching the match on television in Prague because they weren’t allowed to go to Berlin. My sister, Jana, watched on television in Bonn because she wasn’t allowed to go to Berlin.

“My whole family was within 300 miles of each other and we couldn’t be together,” she said.