No Feat of Clay as Chang Loses : Tennis: Faster indoor playing surface complements Lendl’s power game in 6-1, 6-3 Nabisco Masters victory.

If Michael Chang never again beats Ivan Lendl, at least he will always have Paris.

They held a rematch of one of the great mismatches of all time Tuesday night in the opening round of the $3 million Nabisco Masters at Madison Square Garden, where Lendl defeated Chang, 6-1, 6-3, the opposite outcome of Chang’s French Open upset.

It was on the red clay of Roland Garros that Chang, a teen-ager suffering from muscle cramps, defeated the No. 1-ranked Lendl in a five-set epic that left the tennis world shaking its head.

Chang, who went on to win the French Open and claim his first Grand Slam title at age 17, said he expects Lendl to remember that June day in Paris for a long time.

“I would say there is going to be a little bitterness whenever he plays me because of what happened in France,” Chang said. “But I think it’s just one of those things. Everybody has his day.”

This time, it was Lendl’s night. He served five aces, watched Chang double fault twice on break points and was the clear victor in the game of power and aggression that is the usual product of winning players on the blue rubberized indoor surface.

Whereas Chang could use his speed to run down Lendl’s booming groundstrokes on the slow French clay, this surface kept the ball bouncing low and fast.

“Of course, this surface favors me over him,” said Lendl, who said he should always enjoy an edge in power whenever he faces Chang.

“He’s never going to be 6-foot-2,” Lendl said.

Boris Becker, who is 6-4, stood tall in his match against Brad Gilbert. Becker started slowly but finished fast and beat Gilbert, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4.

The defending champion, Becker weathered a blizzard of break points and won despite struggling against Gilbert, who had won four of their five previous meetings.

“I hope things get better from here,” Becker said.

Chang’s serve betrayed him at the worst times. Serving to stay in the first set and trailing, 1-5, Chang led, 40-0, but eventually double faulted at set point.

Now down a set, Chang broke Lendl at love to begin the second set, but he was quickly broken back when he double faulted to 1-1 on the first break point of the second game. Chang lost his serve in the seventh game when, at 15-40, Lendl unloaded a big forehand winner down the line as he approached the net.

Serving for the match at 5-3, Lendl worked to 30-30, then placed a perfect forehand drop shot barely out of Chang’s reach and served his fifth and final ace at match point.

Lendl said that he had no revenge motive against Chang. What happened to him in Paris might have been a mechanical problem, Lendl said.

“Of course, it enters your mind,” Lendl said. “You think of what you did and what went wrong and you second guess yourself.

“(In Paris) I just ran out of strength in my upper body when he was hurting,” Lendl said. “I could not put the ball away. Obviously, that’s not going to happen here.”

On the occasion of his Masters debut, Andre Agassi wore pink tights. His left pinky nail was painted with a pink lightning bolt on a black background.

A pink pinky?

“I think it was quite spectacular,” said Lendl.

Thus was made the fashion statement of the evening, however brief it may have been.

Agassi absorbed a 6-4, 6-2, defeat from Stefan Edberg which wounded his neck, if not his sartorial taste. He must have slept on his neck wrong the night before, Agassi said, then wondered if he might be forced to pull out.

The problem, Agassi said, forces him to move stiffly when he turns one way.

“I look like Frankenstein when I look to the right,” Agassi said.

He looked something entirely else with his groundbreaking tennis attire. It included a black and white shirt with vertical pink stripes.

Agassi was asked why he wore the pink tights, the color of which is called “hot lava.” He knew one reason for sure.

“Looks is a priority,” he said. “And I guess it keeps my hips warm.”

As for his fingernail polish, Agassi said there is nothing so special about the black and pink.

“It just matches my shorts,” he said.

Edberg said he was unaware that he was playing someone wearing nail polish.

“I don’t really look at guys’ nails, do you?” Edberg said.

If Agassi is unable to play Becker tonight, then alternate Alberto Mancino will take his place.