TENNIS ROUNDUP : Arriens Upsets Gilbert in New York

Carsten Arriens, ranked 307th, surprised eighth-seeded Brad Gilbert, 7-6 (8-6), 7-6 (7-4), and reached the quarterfinals of the $265,000 Hamlet Cup tennis tournament at Commack, N.Y.

Top-seed Stefan Edberg of Sweden advanced with a 7-6 (7-3), 6-2 victory over Jimmy Arias.

Third-seeded Ivan Lendl defeated Olivier Delaitre of Luxembourg, 6-4, 6-1, and fifth-seeded Boris Becker rallied to oust German Davis Cup teammate Carl-Uwe Steeb, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4.

“This was the biggest win in my life,” said Arriens, who spent three years playing satellite events while recovering from ankle and back injuries. He had a 1-3 record in previous ATP events.

“I’m in good shape, and the hot weather didn’t bother me as much. With being hurt so much and not winning, I was wondering about giving up tennis. Now I think I’ll stick with tennis.”

Edberg broke up a first-set service duel with Arias by taking a 6-1 lead in the tiebreaker.

Top-seeded Thomas Muster of Austria defeated David Prinosil of Germany, 6-1, 6-0, and advanced to the quarterfinals of the Croatian Open at Zagreb, Croatia.

Eighth-seeded Guillermo Perez-Roldan of Argentina defeated Patrick Baur of Germany, 6-7, 6-2, 7-5, and Claudio Mezzadri of Switzerland beat Marcos Gorriz of Spain, 6-7, 6-4, 7-5.

Former top 10 player John Alexander is lobbying tennis officials in Australia to oust Neale Fraser as Davis Cup tennis captain.

Alexander said Fraser has taken Australian tennis backward during his 23 years in charge of the team.

“We dominated the game,” Alexander said. “We had six players of the top 10 when Neil took over. At the end of 1991 we didn’t have one player in the top 50.”

Tennis Australia, the sport’s domestic governing body, will decide Monday whether to reappoint former Wimbledon champion Fraser or replace him with Alexander.

Fraser is the world’s longest-serving Davis Cup captain. He led Australia to four Davis Cup victories--in 1973, 1977, 1983 and 1986.