TENNIS ROUNDUP : Krickstein Surprises Lendl in Japan Open

Aaron Krickstein shocked an erratic Ivan Lendl Saturday, beating the top-seeded player, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4, to reach the men’s singles final in the Japan Open at Tokyo.

The fourth-seeded American faces defending champion Stefan Edberg of Sweden. Edberg, seeded second, beat third-seeded Brad Gilbert, 6-1, 7-6 (7-5), in the other semifinal match on the hard courts of the Ariake Colosseum.

Lendl, the world’s top-ranked player, had 18 aces but lost to Krickstein for the first time in five matches.

“He played very well and he served extremely well,” Lendl said of Krickstein. “I made a lot of errors and when I had the chances I just threw them away. I hadn’t been doing any training, and I was basically looking forward to the grass and getting ready for Wimbledon.”

Said Krickstein: “I’ve played well here and against Stefan it should be a good, close and tough match.” Krickstein has beaten Edberg three of the four times they have played.

Krickstein, who had six aces, hit 61.8% of his first serves in, compared to Lendl’s 47%.

The women’s singles final will pair top-seeded Catarina Lindqvist of Sweden with Australia’s Elizabeth Smylie, seeded sixth. Lindqvist beat Eva Sviglerova of Czechoslovakia, 6-1, 6-2, and Smylie beat Japan’s 17-year-old Naoko Sawamatsu, 6-1, 6-2.

Top-ranked Steffi Graf split a pair of tiebreakers, then took advantage of Natalia Zvereva’s exhaustion in the final set to complete a 7-6 (10-8), 6-7 (7-4), 6-1 victory in the semifinals of the Bausch & Lomb tennis championships at Amelia Island, Fla.

Arantxa Sanchez Vicario defeated defending champion Gabriela Sabatini, 6-4, 6-0, in the other semifinal and said, “I feel very confident I can win the tournament.”

The triumph was the 56th in a row for Graf, who is trying to win this $350,000 tournament for the first time since 1987.

Sabatini beat Graf in the semifinals two years ago and in the final last year.

Graf improved her record to 4-0 against Zvereva, but the Soviet fared much better than in their first meeting--a 6-0, 6-0 blowout in the 1988 French Open final that lasted only 32 minutes.

Fourth-seeded Andres Gomez of Ecuador powered past Andrei Chesnokov, 6-3, 7-5, to advance to the final of the 38th Count of Godo tournament at Barcelona, Spain.

Gomez earned the right to defend the title he won last year against Argentina’s Guillermo Perez-Roldan, who upset third-seeded Emilio Sanchez of Spain. The 10th-seeded Argentine held off the error-prone Spaniard, 7-5, 7-6 (7-1).

Jim Peterson of Orange defeated J.J. Jackson of Hendersonville, N.C., 6-2, 6-2, to win the boys’ 16 title at the Easter Bowl tournament in Miami.