Tennis Roundup : Van Patten Comes Back, Puts on Show at Las Vegas

Vince Van Patten was a big winner at Las Vegas Tuesday.

Pulling off the upset of the day, the part-time actor defeated No. 3-seeded Aaron Krickstein, 7-5, 1-6, 6-3, in the first-round of the Alan King-Caesars Palace tennis tournament.

Van Patten, playing in only his third tournament this year, broke Krickstein in the 11th game and held service to take the first set. Krickstein rallied in the second set, but Van Patten jumped to a 4-0 lead in the third set and coasted to victory.

One other seeded player bowed out as Jimmy Arias ousted No. 4 Pat Cash of Australia, 1-6, 6-3, 7-6.

Cash dominated Arias in the first set, but Arias rebounded to take the second set. In the third set, Arias had triple match point while leading 5-4, but Cash broke Arias’ service and then held serve to force a tiebreaker, which Arias won 7-4.

The only other seeded player to see action Tuesday was No. 6 Tomas Smid of Czechoslovakia, who defeated Ramesh Krishnan of India, 6-7, 6-2, 6-1.

In other first-round action, John Fitzgerald of Australia upset Yannick Noah of France, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4; Johan Kriek defeated John Sadri, 7-5, 6-1, and Paul Annacone beat Brad Gilbert, 6-3, 6-3.

The two top-seeded players in the tournament, No. 1 Jimmy Connors and No. 2 Kevin Curren of South Africa, make their tournament debuts today.

Connors, bothered by a bad back for several weeks, worked out Tuesday and reported no problems.

No. 2-seeded Manuela Maleeva of Bulgaria defeated Masako Yanagi of Japan, 6-3, 6-1, in the second round of a $150,000 Virginia Slims tournament at Houston.

No. 1-seeded Martina Navratilova, who is 28-2 this year, plays her first match today against Anne Smith. Navratilova earned a bye into the second round.

Meanwhile, No. 7-seeded Pam Casale was beaten by Emiko Okagawa of Japan, 1-6, 6-1, 6-3. It was the second time a seeded player has lost in the tournament. Monday, No. 6-seeded Peanut Louie lost her opening match to Regina Marsikova of Czechoslovakia.