French Open Men’s Final Is In for a Chang : 17-Year-Old Advances in 4 Sets; Edberg Wins in 5

He’s so young, he’s so small and his serve is so-so. So how is Michael Chang doing it in the French Open?

Is he hotter than cafe au lait? Tougher than a week-old baguette?

After four hours nine minutes of some glasnost with rackets Friday, Chang was only slightly higher than the bottom of the Seine. The muscles cramped in both his legs so badly that he had to be carried out of a television interview room.

“I should be OK for Sunday,” said Chang, who was certainly OK on the court Friday.

The clouds cleared and the sun came out at Stade Roland Garros, which meant that there was a chang(e) in the weather, too. For 34 years, the forecast for the month of June has been extremely dry for Americans in Paris.

But now, Chang has a chance to do what no male player from the United States has done since Tony Trabert in 1955. He can win the French Open.

Facing a bigger, stronger opponent, Andrei Chesnokov of the Soviet Union, the 15th-seeded Chang mined a 6-1, 5-7, 7-6 (7-4), 7-5 semifinal victory from the red clay of center court.

The opposition in the final will be provided by third-seeded Stefan Edberg of Sweden, doing such a good clay-court impression of Bjorn Borg that he can probably change his name now to Edborg.

In a 3-hour 55-minute power struggle of serve and volley, Edberg defeated No. 2 Boris Becker of West Germany, 6-3, 6-4, 5-7, 3-6, 6-2.

The key game was the second in the fifth set. Becker had broken Edberg’s serve to start the set and had a chance to go up, 2-0, with two game points, but he played two poor shots, sending the score to deuce and eventually losing his serve.

“I was a little lucky to break him,” Edberg said. “I think that’s what really got me back in the match.”

Becker, who lost to Edberg in last year’s Wimbledon final, knew he had missed his opportunity in the fifth set.

“I thought I was really on top of him,” Becker said. “He was looking a little bit exhausted. And I had 40-15, a big chance. I guess I got a little tight about it, a little anxious.

“At 40-15, I gave him new life,” Becker said.

Chang, 17 years 3 1/2 months, aged considerably in his semifinal match against Chesnokov, who plays tennis as if he were a goalie, knocking back shot after shot. Chang found himself obliged to play a game of endurance that left him exhausted.

After completing a round of postmatch television interviews, Chang doubled up with muscle cramps. He stayed on his feet and walked for nearly an hour in the locker room after the match.

“He was totally exhausted,” said Jose Higueras, Chang’s clay-court coach.

While Chang was on the court, though, he employed his run-down-everything style that has made him popular here.

It was so ridiculously easy for Chang in the early going--he won the first set in 28 minutes--that another heavy dose of Changmania seemed possible. Chesnokov’s two-handed backhand was faulty, and he fell behind, 3-0, in the second set, playing his stodgy, conservative style, but then he began finding his target.

As Chang pointed out: “With a match like that, you never think you have it.”

Chesnokov broke Chang’s serve to even the match at 3-3 in what was a typical game in the match. Chang had five game points and saved two break points before losing the third one.

The comeback was soon complete for Chesnokov. When Chang misplayed a backhand volley, Chesnokov held two set points and he cashed in the first one as Chang sent an overhead into the net.

Always more comfortable at the baseline, Chang still looked to take any balls Chesnokov hit short and to come in to the net. But the match might have turned on an error by Chesnokov, on a rare trip to the net.

In the 10th game of the third set, Chang was serving to stay in the set at 4-5. Chesnokov held three break points and blew them all. Chang eventually held serve on his sixth game point when Chesnokov’s backhand approach shot flew long.

“He played the big points better,” Chesnokov admitted.

They moved on to a tiebreaker, and Chang took a 5-4 lead. He had a set point when Chesnokov’s backhand passing shot went long. Then he closed out the set when he got a short ball, driving it so deep that all Chesnokov could do was put up a lob, which Chang put away with an overhead.

At 4-4 and a break apiece in the fourth set, Chang saved a break point to hold serve. Chesnokov now had to hold serve to stay in the match. He did it but not easily.

Two match points were there for Chang, but he couldn’t cash them in. He did, though, on the next opportunity, with Chesnokov serving once again to stay in the match at 5-6.

In that 12th game, Chang angled a volley winner at 15-30 to give him two more match points. This time, he closed it out. Chesnokov netted a backhand from the baseline, picked up his bags, waved to the crowd and was gone.

Chang seemed fine when he left the court but needed assistance after his interview with ESPN had ended. Higueras said that beating Chesnokov had taxed both Chang’s mental and physical conditioning.

Higueras seemed worried about neither.

“He has the head of a champion,” Higueras said, perhaps hoping the other parts of Chang would fall in line.

When he finally met the press, nearly three hours after his match, Chang was subdued. His opportunity to become the youngest French Open winner as well as the first American winner in three decades wasn’t particularly appealing.

“I really don’t think about those things because it’s an added pressure for me,” Chang said. “I’m just going to go out there Sunday and try my best.”

Tennis Notes

Michael Chang has entered the $425,000 Volvo Tennis/Los Angeles tournament Sept. 16-24 at the L.A. Tennis Center at UCLA, tournament director Robert Kramer announced in Los Angeles. . . . It was a strange postmatch press conference with Andrei Chesnokov. He answered questions in Russian and spoke through an interpreter, even though he has spoken in English at every other press conference for two weeks. Chesnokov, who has smiled and joked with the media before here, was sullen this time. When asked if he would keep his semifinal check, he said: “I don’t understand the question. I came here to play a tennis tournament. I didn’t come here to collect a check.” Asked the same question Wednesday, Chesnokov had jokingly suggested that he would keep $72,000 of the $73,000 check.