TENNIS ROUNDUP : Krickstein to Face Prpic in Semifinals

Aaron Krickstein, the only remaining seeded player in the Monte Carlo Open, reached the semifinals Friday with a 6-1, 7-6 (7-1) victory over Andrei Chesnokov of Russia.

Krickstein, seeded 16th, meets Goran Prpic of Croatia, who upset No. 3 Michael Stich of Germany, 7-6 (7-5), 4-6, 7-5.

In the other quarterfinals of the $1.2-million tournament, Arnaud Boetsch of France rallied to defeat Carl-Uwe Steeb of Germany, 1-6, 6-2, 6-0, and Thomas Muster of Austrian beat 20-year-old qualifier Mikael Tillstroem of Sweden, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.

Krickstein won the first set in 31 minutes.

“I didn’t make too many unforced errors at the beginning, and I was up 5-0 pretty quickly,” Krickstein said. “But I knew it wouldn’t be that easy a match, and it wasn’t in the second set.”

After the players battled to 5-5, the 11th game lasted more than 20 minutes, before Krickstein finally gained the break.

Chesnokov pushed it to a tiebreaker, which Krickstein won easily.

Prpic reached the semifinals for the second year in a row, but only after a struggle against Stich, the defending Wimbledon champion. Prpic wasted a 3-0 lead and three match points in the 12th game.

Boetsch, who defeated two seeded players to reach the quarterfinals, continued his fine play against Steeb. After losing five games in a row, Boetsch hit winners all over the court.

“I was able to break him early in the second set, and that put me back in the match,” Boetsch said. “After that I was more confident and it turned around easily. Tactically I didn’t change much.”

Muster, who will meet Boetsch in the semifinals, was stronger at the end of the third set against Tillstroem, playing his first pro tournament and ranked 332nd in the world.

Muster reached the Monte Carlo final in 1990, losing to Chesnokov.

Top-ranked Monica Seles defeated Mary Pierce, an American who plays out of France, 7-6 (8-6), 6-4, in the quarterfinals of the International Women’s Tennis Championships of Spain at Barcelona.

The other top three seeded players also advanced to the semifinals. No. 2 Arantxa Sanchez Vicario defeated Julie Halard of France, 6-2, 6-3; third-seeded Conchita Martinez had a 7-5, 6-1 victory over Nathalie Tauziat of France and fourth-seeded Manuela Maleeva-Fragniere defeated unseeded Wiltrud Probst of Germany, 6-3, 6-4.