TENNIS ROUNDUP : Muster Keeps Working Hard and Defeats Arias

Thomas Muster of Austria rallied from a 3-0 deficit in the final set to beat Jimmy Arias, 3-6, 6-2, 7-5, Sunday night and win the $150,000 Australian Hardcourt championship at Adelaide.

Muster is coming back after being seriously injured when hit by a drunk driver in an auto accident last April in Florida.

The third-seeded Muster twice broke Arias’ serve in the final set en route to his first tournament victory since the career-threatening knee injury. He earned $18,000.

“There were times when I wanted to give up, but I kept working,” Muster said of his comeback.

Arias, a former top 10 player whose ranking has dropped to 88th, made an increasing number of errors as the match progressed.

Arias, whose last Grand Prix victory was in 1983, took a 3-0 lead in the third set and later was serving for a 4-1 lead. But Muster broke serve, then broke again in the 11th game before wrapping up the win.

Top-seeded Emilio Sanchez of Spain twice rallied from a set down to beat Richey Reneberg, 6-7 (3-7), 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1, in a $150,000 tournament at Wellington, N.Z.

The victory in the 3 1/2-hour match was the 100th of Sanchez’s career and his second in a week.

Last Monday he teamed with his sister, Arantxa, to beat John McEnroe and Pam Shriver in the final of the Hopman Cup team event at Perth, Australia.

Soviet teen-ager Natalia Zvereva won her first tournament title by defeating Australia’s Rachel McQuillan, 6-4, 6-0, in the final of the $150,000 Australian Hardcourt championships at Brisbane.

“This was a good feeling,” said the 18-year-old Zvereva, six times a runner-up on the women’s tour.