Krickstein Hurt, Woodforde Moves On : Tennis: Unseeded player and his doubles partner, Krajicek, meet in final today.

The second loudest pop of the day at the Volvo/Los Angeles tournament, right behind any serve of your choice by Richard Krajicek, came from Aaron Krickstein’s foot Saturday night.

Krickstein was helped from the court, left the L.A. Tennis Center stadium in a wheelchair and was taken to the UCLA Medical Center, where X-rays showed he fractured bone in his left foot during the first set of his semifinal against Mark Woodforde.

“I felt it crack and heard it,” said Krickstein, who will have surgery Wednesday. “I knew it was bad when it happened.”

Krickstein, top-seeded in this tournament, was injured as he planted his foot to hit a backhand volley. He fell to the court in obvious pain and rolled over on his back. ATP trainer Bill Norris examined him on the court, but Krickstein could not continue and retired with the unseeded Woodforde leading, 4-2.

“It’s unfortunate, but I’ll take them any way they are,” Woodforde said. “It’s a bad break for him, but a good one for me.”

Woodforde, who had not gone beyond the quarterfinal round this year, meets a familiar face in today’s final--his doubles partner, the second-seeded Krajicek of the Netherlands.

Woodforde’s reaction? “It’s strange,” he said.

Equally odd is Krickstein’s uncanny ability to get injured. Only 25, Krickstein is very likely to miss his third U.S. Open because of injuries.

Meanwhile, waiting to serve is the imposing figure of Krajicek, the Dutch Oven, who finished off Sandon Stolle in a 56-minute blowout, 6-2, 6-4, before the suntan lotion had dried on most of the fans.

Krajicek even provided the punctuation point when he sent a superheated ace clocked at 127 m.p.h. straight down the middle of the court on match point against Sandon Stolle.

“I saw it,” said Woodforde. “Well, I didn’t actually see it. It just went so fast.”

This shot marked something of a historical national achievement for Krajicek--the first American final by a Dutch player since Tom Okker in 1977.

Krajicek isn’t exactly sentimental: “I don’t care if it’s in the States or Zimbabwe . . . now, if I get to the final of a Grand Slam and they say I’m the first Dutchman, then I say OK, that’s nice.”

In the meantime, Krajicek’s serve is downright nasty. His 127 m.p.h. ace on match point was the week’s swiftest and one of 10 aces Krajicek dispatched beyond Stolle’s racket.

The 22-year-old Australian won just six points on Krajicek’s serve, only two in the second set with one of those coming on a double fault.

Afterward, Stolle wasn’t disappointed, just sort of surprised.

“He just kept coming,” Stolle said. “I didn’t think he could keep it up for the whole match.”

Actually, Krajicek has been keeping it up for the whole week. So far, he has 47 aces in four matches, bringing his total to 445 for the year, or just seven aces behind Pete Sampras in second place on the IBM/ATP Tour. Everybody trails Goran Ivanisevic, who serves like he is from another planet.

But Krajicek may have taken a lead in another category: food. He warmed up for an hour before the Stolle match because he didn’t feel well, which doesn’t sound too surprising after learning that Krajicek dined Friday night on more than 40 pieces of sushi, which is almost a whole aquarium.

Eating was something that came later in life to Krajicek, who grew 10 inches in two years between ages 16-18, much to the relief of his mother and father. Up until then, they were sort of wondering what sort of species they were raising under their roof in The Hague.

“My parents were afraid of me,” Krajicek said. “I never wanted to eat. They would say ‘What’s wrong with this boy?’ ”

Tennis Notes

Jimmy Connors was fined $725 for a verbal obscenity during his Friday night loss to Mark Woodforde. Connors said he is upset over the general quality of officiating on the ATP Tour. “What happens out there is a joke,” Connors said. “It’s the same old stuff.”