TENNIS ROUNDUP : Americans Aren’t Clay Pigeons in Rome

Only three Americans have won the Italian Open in the last 30 years, but this year could be different.

Top-seeded Brad Gilbert led three Americans into the third round Wednesday with a 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 victory over Luis Mattar of Brazil on the clay courts in Rome.

Also advancing to the round of 16 were second-seeded Aaron Krickstein, who defeated Karel Novacek of Czechoslovakia, 6-2, 6-2, and ninth-seeded Jim Courier, who beat Jaime Yzaga of Peru, 6-3, 6-4.

The only American loser was fifth-seeded Jay Berger, who fell to Italy’s Omar Camporese, 6-4, 6-4.

Barry McKay won in 1960, Vitas Gerulaitis in 1977 and 1979, and Jimmy Arias in 1983.

In other matches, third-seeded Andres Gomez of Ecuador defeated Diego Nargiso, 7-6, 6-4, fourth-seeded Emilio Sanchez of Spain outlasted Marcelo Filipini of Uruguay, 4-6, 6-1, 6-3, and sixth-seeded Martin Jaite downed Renzo Furlan, 6-4, 6-4.

No. 10 Thomas Muster of Austria advanced when Anders Jarryd of Sweden withdrew because of a calf injury while trailing, 5-1.

Top-seeded Steffi Graf needed only 42 minutes to beat Katia Piccolini of Italy, 6-0, 6-1, and reach the quarterfinals of the German Open at West Berlin.

Second-seeded Monica Seles of Yugoslavia overwhelmed Nicole Jagerman of the Netherlands, 6-1, 6-0, in 45 minutes, Gabriela Sabatini of Argentina defeated Elise Burgin, 6-2, 6-1.

Quickest match of the day was Soviet Larisa Savchenko’s 6-3, 6-0 victory over No. 15 Hana Mandlikova of Australia in 40 minutes.

Sixth-seeded Debbie Graham of Stanford swept past teammate and defending champion Sandra Birch, 7-5, 6-4, and into today’s final of the NCAA women’s championships.

Graham, a sophomore from Fountain Valley, will face seventh-seeded Nicole Arendt of Florida, who rallied to defeat unseeded Eveline Hamers of Kansas, 6-7 (7-1), 6-4, 6-1.