TENNIS ROUNDUP : Argentina Eliminates U.S. in Federation Cup

For the second time in two days, Lori McNeil was upset in the Federation Cup. On Thursday, the United States team could not survive her defeat and was ousted by Argentina from the women’s international team competition at Frankfurt, Germany.

Florencia Labat won the last nine games to beat McNeil, 5-7, 6-3, 6-0. In the first singles, Ines Gorrochategui also rallied to beat Lindsay Davenport, 6-7 (7-5), 7-5, 7-5.

A victory by the U.S. doubles team of Ann Grossman and Debbie Graham avoided a shutout. With the Americans up, 6-3, 3-0, Gorrochategui, who was playing with Patricia Tarabini, retired with back problems.

McNeil lost in three sets on Wednesday to Fang Li of China, but the U.S. managed a 2-1 victory.

In the semifinals Saturday, Argentina will meet Australia, which advanced over Finland.

Today, top-seeded Spain plays the Netherlands and the Czech Republic meets France.

*

Aaron Krickstein, looking to revive his game after missing much of last year with a broken foot, upset sixth-seeded Andre Agassi, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, to advance to the quarterfinals of the $625,000 Newsweek Classic at Washington.

The third-round loss by Agassi left only two of the top six seeded players--No. 2 Petr Korda and No. 3 Mal Washington--in the field.

Korda, the defending champion, fought off No. 15 Jakob Hlasek, 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (7-3), and Washington defeated Jeff Tarango, 6-3, 6-1. Korda survived 14 break points, including nine in the first set.

Seventh-seeded Todd Martin defeated Patrick McEnroe, 6-3, 6-7 (7-5), 6-2, No. 8 Amos Mansdorf was a 6-4, 6-2 winner over Sandon Stolle, and No. 11 Richey Reneberg defeated Mark Knowles, 6-3, 6-2.

*

Top-seeded Michael Stich of Germany beat Spain’s Carlos Costa, 6-4, 1-6, 6-4, and second-seeded Andrei Medvedev of Ukraine breezed past Germany’s Bernd Karbacher, 6-3, 6-4, to reach the quarterfinals of the Mercedes Cup at Stuttgart, Germany.