Somehow, Not Even Lendl Can Cramp Chang’s Style : At 17, He Overcomes Muscle Pain and World’s Top Player to Win

This tennis is a bizarre business. How else can you explain how a 17-year-old who is doubled up with muscle cramps and serves underhanded can come from two sets down to beat the world’s No. 1 player?

Underhanded serve?

“I think that kind of shocked him a little bit,” Michael Chang said.

Shock waves reverberated in the French Open Monday at 6:02 p.m.

After 4 hours 39 minutes of tennis, Chang, from Placentia, dropped to the court and laid on his back on the red clay of the stadium court at Roland Garros when Ivan Lendl, the best player in the world, double-faulted on match point.

It was an incredible ending to an improbable French Open victory for Chang, who became the youngest men’s quarterfinalist in the tournament’s history.

At one point during the fifth set, Chang thought he could not go on. But he did, winning match point when Lendl sent his second serve into the net to finish a 4-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 decision for Chang.

“I was just real fortunate,” said Chang, who felt the muscles in both his legs begin to cramp as early as the third set. The pain was not obvious until the fifth set, when he was assessed a point penalty for delaying the game while he took extra time to drink some water.

“Both my thighs were cramping and I wouldn’t have been able to play the point anyway,” he said of the penalty.

Sipping water between points and eating bananas while standing through changeovers, Chang tried to soothe his aching muscles and remain calm in the fifth set.

Curiously, Lendl seemed unable to take advantage of Chang’s physical condition. Lendl did not change his game, attempting only one drop shot against an opponent in obvious distress.

Chang won the first two games of the fifth set, but Lendl got even at 2-2 as the cramps limited Chang’s court speed to something like a stroll.

Chang, who said he was trying to keep the points short to conserve strength, somehow came up with two backhand volley winners and broke Lendl in the fifth game. Sensing an upset, the crowd gave Chang a standing ovation.

Lendl broke back to 3-3, feasting on Chang’s flatfooted serve, but lost his own serve again. Chang got another standing ovation with his cross-court backhand winner on break point.

Retreating to a defensive position, Chang hit a series of looping moonballs to keep Lendl back. Then, at 4-3, 30-30, Chang served underhanded and won the point when Lendl dumped a backhand volley into the net.

“That (underhanded serve) was a little bit unexpected,” Lendl said.

Clearly, at that point Chang was winning the mental battle, too, which came as no surprise to Jose Higueras, who has worked with Chang on his clay-court game.

“He’s as good as anybody in the head,” Higueras said. “I wasn’t surprised he could stay with Ivan mentally.”

Trailing, 5-3, Lendl was now serving to stay in the match. Chang rifled two backhand winners down the line, but Lendl served an ace to make it 15-30. A third backhand winner by Chang brought up match point.

Lendl’s first serve was long.

The crowd gasped when Chang suddenly moved in, standing only a couple of feet from the service line as he awaited Lendl’s serve. An obviously disturbed Lendl asked umpire Richard Ings to call for quiet.

Chang was only trying to come up with something, anything, that would work for him.

“I did that to make him think,” Chang said. “I just stood up there and tried to bother his concentration. I just tried to do whatever I could.”

A strange hush fell as Lendl went into his service motion. The ball went up, Lendl’s racket came down and the ball thudded into the net.

And Chang flopped on his back. He cried.

Lendl stood in disbelief at the service line, perhaps realizing that his drive toward a fourth French Open title had ended, and with it his shot at the Grand Slam.

Lendl’s defeat was only his third in 39 matches this year. The fourth-round loss was his earliest exit from the French Open since 1982.

“Give him credit,” Lendl said of Chang. “It’s very difficult, if not impossible, to play with cramps.”

Would he have won if Chang hadn’t had the cramps?

“That we will never know,” said Lendl, who had 45 unforced errors.

Chang has one day off to recover. His quarterfinal opponent Wednesday is Ronald Agenor of Haiti, whose day went along the same lines as Chang’s.

Agenor lost the first two sets to Sergio Bruguera of Spain, was bothered by a cramping stomach muscle during the match, then came back to win, 2-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-1, 6-2.

“It’s nothing very serious,” said Agenor, who received attention from a trainer at one point. “I am mentally prepared.”

Chang became the only American male left when Lawson Duncan and Jim Courier, 18, lost. Duncan fell in straight sets to Mats Wilander of Sweden, 7-5, 6-3, 6-2, and Courier, who had upset Andre Agassi Sunday, was eliminated by Andrei Chesnokov of the Soviet Union, 2-6, 3-6, 7-6 (7-3), 6-2, 7-5.

Courier said he ran out of gas.

“He started pressing me more, getting a little bit in his backhand, and I think I might have punched myself out a little bit in the first two sets,” he said.

Courier also lost the two other five-set matches in his career.

“That’s a hurdle I’ll have to clear,” he said. “I’m only 18. I think I can do it.”

More than an hour after his match had ended, Chang said that beating Lendl had not yet settled in, that all he wanted to do was go to his hotel and get some sleep.

There he would be able to rest his aching legs, which had caused him so much pain on the court.

Higueras, who has coached Chang on how to deal with cramps, said the idea is to stay calm, take deep breaths and drink water.

“If you panic, you get cramps all over the place,” Higueras said.

Chang said he was surprised that he was able to hang on for so long.

“If I put any pressure on my muscles, especially my legs, I’d cramp.

“At one point, I really thought I couldn’t go on anymore,” he said. “But I said my prayer, and all of a sudden, my cramps went away.

“I was just real fortunate. I knew the Lord had his plans for me. If He wanted me to win, I’d win.”

MICHAEL CHANG’S CAREER HIGHLIGHTS May 1986: Becomes youngest player to win the San Diego Section championship at the age of 14.

August 1987: Becomes youngest player to win U.S. junior championship at 15 years 5 months.

August 1987: Competing as an amateur, becomes youngest male in 30 years to win a main-draw event at U.S. Open.

February 1988: Makes professional debut and defeats Laguna Beach’s Rick Leach to reach second round in U.S. Indoor Championships at Memphis.

October 1988: At 15, defeats Johan Kriek in the San Francisco TransAmerica Open final for first tournament championship as a professional.

May 1988: Reaches third round of French Open before losing to John McEnroe, 6-0, 6-3, 6-1.

June 1988: At 16, defeats Glenn Layendecker to become the youngest male in 60 years to win a main-draw match at Wimbledon.

February 1989: At 16, becomes the youngest player to compete for the United States in Davis Cup competition.

June 1989: Defeats top-seeded Ivan Lendl, 4-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3, to reach quarterfinals of French Open.