Australian Open Tennis Championships : McEnroe and Krickstein, Last U.S. Men, to Meet in 4th Round

The number of American men who can win the Australian Open has dropped to only 2 on the seventh day, and it’s going to get smaller soon.

In a situation ugly for Americans, John McEnroe and Aaron Krickstein won their matches Sunday, which means one will eliminate the other when they meet in a fourth-round match Tuesday.

Krickstein, seeded 10th, defeated Niclas Kroon of Sweden, 6-4, 7-5, 6-4, and McEnroe had an even easier time in what should have been a tougher match. The seventh-seeded McEnroe defeated hot-and-cold West German Patrick Kuhnen, who was mostly cold, 6-2, 7-5, 6-2.

Krickstein, still on the comeback from injuries, said he wished more Americans had entered. He and McEnroe are the only Americans in the top 20 who chose to play.

“I think everyone should be down here,” Krickstein said.

Brett Garnett, 21, a qualifier from Myrtle Beach, S.C., was eliminated by 16th-seeded Amos Mansdorf, 6-2, 7-5, 6-2.

On a cool, cloudy and windy day, Ivan Lendl considered asking for permission to wear a warmup suit for his match against Nicklas Kulti.

“I decided to rub hot cream on my legs instead,” said the second-seeded Lendl, who defeated Kulti, 6-2, 6-4, 6-3, then rubbed it in afterward, saying the Swede’s game was full of holes.

At the same time, fourth-seeded Stefan Edberg posted a 7-5, 7-5, 7-5 victory over Johan Kriek, then warmed up for his fourth-round match against Pat Cash.

It was clearly the day’s hottest moment. Edberg said that Cash, who eliminated Jeremy Bates of Great Britain, 7-6, 6-2, 6-3, performed less than admirably in Friday’s 5-set victory over Richey Reneberg.

“Well, it seemed like he tanked in the fourth set, and I thought it was pretty bad for him to act the way he did,” Edberg said. “He didn’t deserve to win. It’s very seldom you see that, especially in a Grand Slam tournament.”

McEnroe was asked if he agreed with Edberg.

“I saw that part of the match and I think he was pretty accurate,” McEnroe said. “ Tank may not be the right word, though. Maybe he lost concentration.”

Cash, of course disagreed. “No, I didn’t tank and that’s as simple as that,” he said. “What was it, 6-4? That doesn’t sound like a tank. Well, 6-0 is a tank. Enough of that, all right?”

Meanwhile, Steffi Graf, who scored a straight-set victory over Nicole Provis of Australia, was nevertheless forced to play out of a 4-4 game score in the first set.

Graf, who had a 4-1 lead, won, 6-4, 6-0. She also wondered where all the nice summer weather has gone.

“For sure, I don’t know what’s going on,” said the West German, who will play Claudia Kohde-Kilsch in the quarterfinals.

Besides Kohde-Kilsch, who defeated American Donna Faber, 17, 6-3, 6-3, also reaching the quarterfinals was Zina Garrison, a 7-5, 6-1 winner over another American, Cammy McGregor. Third-seeded Gabriela Sabatini, who will meet Garrison in the quarterfinals, defeated Raffaella Reggi of Italy, 6-0, 4-6, 6-1.

Boris Becker reached the round of 16 Saturday night with a 6-0, 6-1, 6-2 defeat of Canadian Chris Pridham, in a mismatch that required Becker’s presence for 1 hour 10 minutes.

“I feel like Steffi Graf,” Becker said.

But Pam Shriver had a different feeling after her match.

“I feel pretty rotten,” she said.

Shriver, seeded fourth, lost in the third round to Catarina Lindqvist, 0-6, 6-4, 8-6, in something that is becoming kind of an Australian Open tradition--her third loss to Lindqvist in this event in the last 4 years.

Shriver didn’t take this latest defeat very well, knocking over every potted plant in her path as she walked through the tunnel to the dressing room.

On a farm it would be the back 40, at a movie studio the back lot. But at the Australian Open it’s Court 15.

The most outer of outer courts, Court 15 is the utmost in the outback at this Grand Slam event.

Its home is the National Tennis Center, which is located on a wedge of land squeezed between pasta ribbons of railroad tracks and the muddy brown Yarra River.

The area is called Flinders Park, named after Australian Naval pioneer Matthew Flinders, whocircumnavigated Tasmania in 1802.

Getting to Court 15 requires skill similar to Flanders’. It is at the farthest reaches of the tennis complex, a fact that American Elise Burgin discovered when she started looking for it to play her doubles match.

Players are not assigned to Court 15, they are exiled.

“It took about 3 hours to get there,” she said. “I laughed when I saw it.”

After weaving through a maze of paths around the 11 other outside courts, Burgin found Court 15 resting uneasily with a railroad track on one side and a hospitality tent on the other. It is the only court at the Open with no spectator seating, except for a single park bench.

“It’s definitely the boonie of the boonies,” Burgin said.

Spectators could lean on the chain link fence within inches of the players, who are sitting during changeovers. Burgin said Lori McNeil, her doubles partner, knew what to expect.

“She said people were coming up to her, asking for autographs and talking to her in the middle of her singles match,” she said.

Actually, Court 15 compares to one of the outside courts at the U.S. Open in Flushing Meadow, where smoke from grills cooking hamburgers wafts across the court during matches.

Said Burgin: “At New York, you smell food. At Brisbane, you smell yeast from a giant brewery. Here, you’ve got trains, fans in your face and you can’t get here without a map.”

Perhaps taking the train would help. Shriver, who played a match at nearby Court 5, was distracted by spectators standing on the tops of trains just on the other side of the windscreen.

“It takes a bit of getting used to,” she said. “I felt like charging them admission.”

As the Australian Open finished its first week Sunday, courts were used closer to the showcase courts, Center Court and Courts 1 and 2, as the field got smaller and fewer outside courts were needed.

Court 15 fell silent, or as silent as it gets with the trains running by.