Tennis: Kuerten back to form for title defence

GUSTAVO KUERTEN is beginning to make his presence felt on red clay as he prepares to defend his French Open title later this month. Kuerten overcame a brief second-set lapse to beat Hicham Arazi 6-1, 4-6, 6-2 and reach the quarter-finals of the German Open in Hamburg yesterday.

Thomas Muster, a former French Open champion, also breezed into the quarter- finals, beating German qualifier Jens Knippschild 6-1, 6-4 in 53 minutes, but the 1989 winner Michael Chang, the 11th seed, lost 6-3, 6-7, 6-2 to Franciso Clavet in a second-round match.

Greg Rusedski, the British No 1, is through to the third round after beating Emilio Alvarez in three sets. Rusedski, the second seed, beat his Spanish opponent 7-6, 0-6, 6-3 yesterday morning. The match was held over from Wednesday with Rusedski leading 3-2 in the third set. He was due to face Goran Ivanisevic last night.

In a battle between two Spanish clay-court specialists, the ninth- seeded Felix Mantilla staged an amazing comeback to beat Alberto Berasategui 1-6, 7-6, 7-6. Berasategui wasted 13 match points as he lost a 5-1 lead in the second set.