WIMBLEDON : Chang’s Grand Slam String Ends as Mayotte Wins in Straight Sets

From France to England, the name Chang rang out for nearly six weeks.

But on the second Monday of Wimbledon, where the big serve is still the privilege of the ruling class, the day belonged to people bigger, stronger--and older--than 17-year-old Michael Chang.

Such familiar names as Ivan Lendl, Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg, John McEnroe and Mats Wilander moved on to the men’s quarterfinals, but Chang is not among them.

It was much the same with the women as Steffi Graf, Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert made their way to the quarterfinals.

Chang’s youth might not have been prominent in his 6-3, 6-1, 6-3 fourth-round loss to Tim Mayotte, but there were other factors at work. Mayotte, at 28, is vastly more experienced on the slick grass than Chang, who finally met his match on something other than clay.

Starting at the French Open, Chang had not merely been on a roll, he had been riding an avalanche.

Mayotte, who was surprised by the ease of his victory, had expected a more difficult match.

“But I was happy to put it away quickly,” he said.

“When a guy is playing that kind of tennis, obviously coming off the French Open from winning impossible situations, then you just don’t want to let him have a chance to come up and breath.”

The match itself clearly suffered from shortness of breadth, lasting only 1 hour 42 minutes. Chang lost seven consecutive games, spanning the first and second sets, and Mayotte, as planned, never let up.

But Chang wasn’t terribly upset. He had lost in the second round last year, so the fourth looked pretty good to him.

“I think it’s a good result for me,” Chang said. “I think that reaching the round of 16, it’s quite good. So I think that now I can really just rest and relax and get ready for the tournaments that are coming up.”

Coming up for McEnroe is a quarterfinal date with Wilander.

McEnroe was in familiar form against John Fitzgerald of Australia. He yelled at Fitzgerald and chair umpire Rudolf Berger, got an umpire’s warning, complained about noise--and won.

McEnroe’s back stiffened in the second set when he did not win a game, but he pulled himself together for a 6-3, 0-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory.

However unhappy he might have been, with either the result or McEnroe’s behavior, Fitzgerald still shook hands with him afterward.

“Well, you know, you’ve got to shake hands with the guy, don’t you?” Fitzgerald asked. “I’d look like a goose if I didn’t.”

The problems McEnroe faced in the second set began with a refrigerator. The refrigerator, located just off the side of the court and used to keep tennis balls cool before use, was not working properly and distracted him with its noise.

McEnroe also received a warning for unsportsmanlike conduct in the first set when he wasn’t ready to receive Fitzgerald’s serve.

“I was just trying to gather myself at that point so I would potentially win the set,” McEnroe said. “I was lucky to come out of that set.”

After having received three telephoned death threats against him, tennis problems might have been a welcome relief to McEnroe, but he didn’t want to talk about the threats.

“There’s no point in discussing it,” he said. “All I can say is, ‘Imagine if you were in that position,’ you know.”

Lendl, down a set to Peter Lundgren of Sweden and facing set point again, came back quickly to force a second-set tiebreaker and defeat Lundgren, 1-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2, 6-4.

Playing the top-seeded Lendl in Wednesday’s quarterfinals will be Dan Goldie, 25, of McLean, Va. Goldie defeated Slobodan Zivojinovic of Yugoslavia, 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (8-6).

Becker waded past Aaron Krickstein of Grosse Pointe, Mich., 6-4, 6-4, 7-5, and will play 27-year-old Paul Chamberlin of Manhattan Beach in the quarterfinals.

Chamberlin, ranked 91, is the lowest-ranking player left in the men’s draw and has not played anyone ranked higher than his first-round opponent, Gary Muller of South Africa, who was 101.

Wilander advanced with a 3-6, 7-5, 7-5, 6-3, victory over Christo van Rensburg of South Africa. Mayotte next will meet Stefan Edberg in the quarterfinals.

Even though he is the defending champion, Edberg seems to have been slightly overlooked so far, the same as last year.

“There is a lot of talk about Becker, McEnroe and Lendl (and) that’s fine with me to continue with that,” Edberg said. “I think it’s quite natural because they are very outspoken persons.

“I really don’t mind. I do my thing and I’m happy with the way I am doing it.”

Graf knows the feeling. She needed all of 44 minutes to end the first Wimbledon appearance of 15-year-old Monica Seles, 6-0, 6-1. Graf closed out the first set in 18 minutes.

Seles won only 10 points in the first set.

“I was psyched up for the match,” Graf said. “Now is the time when it counts.”

With Seles gone and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario of Spain to come in the quarterfinals today, Graf is getting a rerun of her last two French Open matches.

Sanchez Vicario said she knows what to expect.

“She’s going to want to kill me,” she said.

Navratilova and Evert, the other top-seeded players remaining, had no difficulty reaching the quarterfinals.

The second-seeded Navratilova beat Hana Mandlikova of Australia, 6-3, 6-2, for the 15th time in their last 17 matches. Navratilova, who plays Gretchen Magers of San Diego in the quarterfinals, said one of her biggest problems was to try not to think too much against Mandlikova.

Navratilova’s former coach, Mike Estep, is coaching Mandlikova.

“This is what’s going through my head because I know he’s given her the same instructions that he’s given me,” Navratilova said. “So you try not to outsmart yourself too much and just go for the shot you’re hitting.”

Evert scored a 6-2, 6-2, victory over Patty Fendick of Sacramento and entered the quarterfinals without having to face a seeded player. For that matter, Evert’s quarterfinal opponent, Laura Golarsa of Italy, isn’t seeded either.

That is the luck of the draw, Evert said.

“Some years you get everybody on your side of the draw,” Evert said. “This year--I don’t mean to say it to be demeaning to my opponents--but it wasn’t the toughest draw in the world. I was a little lucky with the draw this year.”

Others’ luck run out. Lori McNeil of Houston split sets with Sanchez Vicario, but went out meekly in the third, 6-1. Sixth-seeded Helena Sukova of Czechoslovakia was upset by Catarina Lindqvist of Sweden, 6-4, 7-6 (7-5) and 12th-seeded Mary Joe Fernandez of Miami was upset by Rosalyn Fairbank of South Africa, 6-4, 2-6, 6-0.