TENNIS MONTE CARLO OPEN : Edberg Struggles to Victory Over Arias

Top-seeded Stefan Edberg of Sweden struggled to beat Jimmy Arias of the United States, 7-6 (8-6), 6-3, in the second round of the Monte Carlo Open tennis championship Wednesday.

Edberg had to hold off three set points in the first set before winning the tiebreaker.

Arias wasted a pair of set points at 5-2 on Edberg’s serve as the Swede came back to go up 6-5.

Arias forced a tiebreaker, but Edberg won it, 8-6.

In the second set, Edberg found his serve-and-volley game more comfortably and advanced to a third-round match against Spain’s Juan Aguilera, who won a tournament Sunday at Nice, France.

Aguilera advanced when his Spanish compatriot Sergio Brugera cramped after two long sets, 6-7 (8-10), 6-4, and couldn’t continue.

Henri Leconte of France eliminated defending champion Alberto Mancini of Argentina, 6-4, 6-4.

Two other seeded players from Argentina also were ousted. Thomas Muster of Austria defeated No. 8 Martin Jaite, 6-3, 6-2, and Marc Rosset of Switzerland eliminated No. 13 Guillermo Perez-Roldan, 6-1, 7-6 (7-2).

Jim Courier became the last American survivor with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Goran Ivanisevic of Yugoslavia.