LENDL, EDBERG WIN TO STAY ON COLLISION COURSE

Ivan Lendl and Stefan Edberg took different routes to the quaterfinals of the Australian Open on Monday, moving closer to a showdown in the semifinals.

Two-time defending champion Lendl played his bet match of the tournament, beating Aaron Krickstein, 6-2, 6-2, 6-1, moving him around the court like a marionette.

Edberg played less perfectly and got a stiffer challenge from Jim Courier before winning, 4-6, 6-0, 6-4, 5-7, 6-2.

In other fourth-round matches, Goran Prpie of Yugoslavia outlasted Jan Siemerink of the Netherlands, 7-6 (7-3), 6-7 (3-7), 6-0, 7-6 (9-7), and Jaime Yzaga of Peru downed Mats Wilander of Sweden, 7-5, 2-6, 6-1, 3-6, 6-1.

“When I play Aaron, I feel about it this way: Whatever we start doing on the court I’m at least as good as he is at it or a little better,” said Lendl, who has beaten Krickstein in six of seven matches. “So something unusual would have to happen for me to lose the match, and that’s the way I approached it today, and it went the way it usually goes.”

Krickstein, who has slipped from No. 8 two years ago to No.22, had his only big moment in the first game of the match, when his serve flicked off the edge of Lendl’s racket and bent it out of shape.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Lendl said, attributing the incident to a defective racket rather than the power of Krickstein’s serve.

Lendl rarely acknowledges the prowess of his rivals.

Lendl cracked the racket over his knee, tossed it away, picked up another, and won 10 of the next 11 games. During one stretch, from the middle of the first set to the middle of the second, he yielded only six points while winning seven consecutive games. In four of those games, he ended his services with aces.

Edberg uncharacteristically double-faulted on set point in the opener, then asserted himself in the second set by attacking the net faster and driving his serves deeper.

Courier, a chunky, 20-year-old with powerful groundstrokes, couldn’t keep up with Edberg’s speed and started making mistakes.

“Whoop, whoop, oh boy,” Courier sang out when he slapped a forehand return just wide at 40-love in the second game of the set.

Edberg won nine of 10 games until he had a 3-1 lead in the third set. But Courier’s deep, awkward, punchy baseline shots began to force Edberg away from the net.

Courier drew a warning for an obscenity -- actually a string of curses that cost him a $2,000 fine and cut into his $18,000 winnings -- when he double-faulted, giving Edberg a break point in the first game of the fourth set. Courier responded by winning the next three points to hold service, then took the set to even the match.

In the final set, Edberg’s experience and stamina paid off.

“I could bring out that little extra in the fifth set, which is necessary to win a five-setter,” Edberg said. “It’s all got to do with confidence.”

Lendl and Edberg each hold a claim to No.1 -- Lendl by virtue of the International Tennis Federation’s 1990 world champion award, Edberg by his point total on the Assn. of Tennis Professionals tour computer. They played in last year’s Australian Open final, Lendl winning when Edberg defaulted in mid-match because of a torn stomach muscle.

Edberg, who won Wimbledon last summer, said he couldn’t understand why the ITF named Lendl as its 1990 champion.

“I think it’s very strange,” he said. “I had the best year of my life in 1990, while Lendl was dropping to No.3 in the rankings from No. 1. It doesn’t make sense to me.”

Lendl responded that the ITF’s reasoning had some merit, noting that Edberg lost in the first round of the French and U.S. Opens and didn’t hold the No.1 spot on the computer as long during the year as Lendl.