Tennis Roundup : Lendl in Cruise Control; Agassi Finds Higher Gear

Top-seeded Ivan Lendl warmed to the weather, and defending champion Andre Agassi heated up after a slow start Thursday to move into the quarterfinals of the Tournament of Champions in New York.

Lendl used a powerful serve to beat Jordi Arrese of Spain, 6-3, 6-2, while Agassi rallied to eliminate fellow teen-ager Jim Courier, 3-6, 6-3, 7-5.

After several days of chilly, windy weather, the sun came out at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills.

“The conditions were much easier today,” Lendl said. “It wasn’t windy and it was fairly warm.”

The third-seeded Agassi overcame an 0-3 start in the first set and a tender ankle to win his second three-setter in 16 hours.

“He (Courier) is stronger than me and that makes it tough,” Agassi said. “I have to beat him with my head and my ability to vary my shots.”

Three other Americans advanced to the quarterfinals--No. 6 Aaron Krickstein beating 11th-seeded Luiz Mattar of Brazil, 6-4, 7-6 (7-4); No. 7 Brad Gilbert defeating No. 10 Slobodan Zivojinovic of Yugoslavia, 7-6 (9-7), 6-3, and No. 8 Michael Chang ousting No. 9 Andres Gomez of Ecuador, 6-3, 7-6 (8-6).

Fourth-seeded Tim Mayotte was eliminated by Diego Perez of Uruguay, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.

Agassi accidentally hit himself in the left ankle with his racket while serving at 3-4 in the final set, forcing him to favor the leg for a few minutes. But he went on to hold serve and break Courier in the next game for a 5-4 lead.

Courier, an 18-year-old Floridian who turned pro last February, broke right back to even the set, but Agassi ended the two-hour match by taking the final two games.

“The ankle bothered me for a while, but then it loosened up and I was OK,” Agassi said.

Francesco Cancellotti of Italy, who upset second-ranked Mats Wilander Wednesday, was ousted by 15th-seeded Marcelo Filippini of Uruguay, 6-1, 6-7 (6-8), 6-2.

Stefan Edberg of Sweden beat West German Carl-Uwe Steeb, 6-2, 6-4, and reached the quarterfinals of the $205,000 Bavarian Open at Munich, West Germany.

Edberg will next play Argentina’s Alberto Mancini, who defeated Karel Novacek of Czechoslovakia, 6-4, 6-3.

In other matches, Andrei Chesnokov of the Soviet Union downed Sweden’s Magnus Gustafsson, 6-1, 7-6, and Guillermo Perez-Roldan of Argentina outlasted Mexico’s Leonardo Lavalle, 6-4, 6-7, 7-5.

Top-ranked Steffi Graf of West Germany defeated Nicole Jagerman of the Netherlands, 7-5, 6-1, and advanced to the quarterfinals of a $200,000 Virginia Slims tournament at Hamburg, West Germany.

Graf, 19, struggled against Jagerman in the first set but found her stride and won the match in 70 minutes.

Meanwhile, third-seeded Manuela Maleeva of Bulgaria was upset by Argentina’s Bettina Fulco, 7-5, 6-3.

Nathalie Tauziat of France advanced with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Sweden’s Catarina Lindquist, and Austria’s Barbara Paulus defeated Sylvia Hanika of West Germany, 6-4, 6-3.

Each of the three age-divisions’ top-seeded players advanced to the quarterfinals of the Seventeen Magazine Tournament of Champions at the Marguerite Recreation Center in Mission Viejo.

In the 18-year-old division, Audra Keller of Memphis, Tenn., defeated Nicole Storto of Scottsdale, Ariz., 7-5, 6-0. Keller also won the 16-year-old division last year.

In this year’s 16-and-under group, Keri Phebus of Newport Beach defeated Courtney Roberts of Lexington, Ky., 6-0, 6-1. In 14-and-under play, Nicole London of Rolling Hills Estates defeated Kelly Granat of Roslyn, N.Y., 6-1, 6-0.