TENNIS ROUNDUP : Curren Loses, Bates Has to Withdraw

For Kevin Curren and Jeremy Bates, glory didn’t last long.

One day after Curren beat Andre Agassi and Bates knocked off John McEnroe, both were out of the NationsBank tournament at Washington.

Curren, who beat Wimbledon champion Agassi in straight sets late Wednesday, lost to Gary Muller, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-4), on Thursday.

Bates had to retire from his third-round match with Henrik Holm because of a chronic wrist injury. The British player trailed Holm, 5-7, 0-3, when he told tournament officials he could not continue. He was said to have tendinitis and bursitis in the wrist.

“I’ve had problems with my wrist pretty much my whole career,” said Bates, who had surgery on the right wrist 10 years ago.”

In other matches, top-seeded Petr Korda defeated Alex Antonitsch, 6-3, 7-5; No. 3 Ivan Lendl defeated Jim Grabb, 6-1, 7-6 (7-2); No. 6 MaliVai Washington defeated Jimmy Arias, 6-3, 2-6, 3-6, and No. 7 Derrick Rostagno beat Robbie Koenig, 7-6 (7-1), 6-4.

Top-seeded Stefan Edberg of Sweden barely advanced to the quarterfinals of the $1-million Stuttgart Grand Prix at Stuttgart, Germany, and defending champion Michael Stich of Germany was upset by Thomas Muster of Austria, 7-6 (7-2), 6-4.

Edberg notched a 2-6, 7-6 (12-10), 6-2 victory over Javier Sanchez of Spain but had to fend off three match points to save the second set.

Russian qualifier Andrei Medvedev defeated Emilio Sanchez of Spain, 7-6 (7-3), 6-2, and Bernd Karbacher of Germany, who upset Michael Chang a day earlier, scored a 6-7 (7-9), 6-4, 6-4 victory over Francisco Clavet of Spain.

Gigi Fernandez and Pam Shriver beat the French doubles team of Nathalie Tauziat and Isabelle Demongeot, 6-4, 6-2, to put the sixth-seeded United States into the semifinals of the Federation Cup against top-seeded Germany.

Fernandez and Shriver gave the United States a 2-1 victory over France after the two countries split their singles matches earlier in the day at Frankfurt, Germany. Fernandez beat Mary Pierce, 6-1, 6-4, in the opening singles, but teammate Lori McNeil lost to Tauziat, 6-4, 7-5.

The United States plays Germany in a semifinal match Saturday. Steffi Graf led Germany over Poland, 3-0.