Tennis Roundup : Arias Takes Another Step Back and Upsets Krickstein, 7-5, 6-1

Jimmy Arias, playing some of his best tennis in three years, upset U.S. Davis Cup teammate Aaron Krickstein, 7-5, 6-1, Thursday in Monaco to reach the quarterfinals of the $513,000 Monte Carlo Open.

Arias, who got even for a loss to Krickstein at Nice, France, last week, showed further signs he may be ready to regain his top 10 form of 1983 and ’84.

“I’ve been working on hitting a slice backhand and on going to the net more,” Arias said. “Today, I was staying back and staying back, and then on a big point, I’d return the serve and go to the net or serve and volley.”

In other matches, fourth-seeded Mats Wilander downed Thierry Tulasne of France, 7-5, 6-3; fifth-seeded Andres Gomez of Ecuador defeated Jakob Hlasek of Switzerland, 7-5, 6-1; Horst Skoff of Austria beat No. 14-seeded Tarik Benhabiles of France, 7-5, 3-6, 7-6; Andrei Chesnokov of the Soviet Union eliminated Ricky Osterthun of West Germany, 6-3, 6-4; No. 9-seeded Martin Jaite of Argentina stopped Thomas Muster of Austria, 6-2, 6-4, and Ulf Stenlund of Sweden ousted Tore Meinecke of West Germany, 7-5, 6-3.

Seventh-seeded Kent Carlsson of Sweden was trailing No. 10-seeded Guillermo Vilas of Argentina, 6-7, 5-3, in a match suspended by darkness.

Fifth-seeded Gabriela Sabatini of Argentina lost only 10 points in the second set as she swept into the quarterfinals of a $150,000 Virginia Slims tournament at Houston with a 6-1, 6-0 victory over Michelle Torres.

In other matches, second-seeded Hana Mandlikova beat Bettina Fulco of Argentina, 6-1, 6-4, and seventh-seeded Raffaella Reggi of Italy outlasted Gretchen Magers, 6-3, 2-6, 7-6, in 2 hours 40 minutes.