Fractured Hip Sidelines Chang at Least 8 Weeks

Michael Chang pulled out of the $650,000 Stakes Match that starts today after fracturing his hip during practice. He will be sidelined 8 to 12 weeks, a tournament spokesman said.

The world’s fifth-ranked player was practicing with a tennis pro Wednesday and “apparently just pulled up after practicing for about an hour,” said spokesman Kevin O’Keefe.

“I went for a backhand deep in the far corner, I made contact and my hip cracked,” Chang told The Times today. “I heard it crack. I started to limp all over the place. I couldn’t stop limping.”

Chang said he expects to be on crutches for a month, which may place his U.S. Davis Cup hopes in early February against Mexico in jeopardy.

“I’m not going to be able to do anything for at least eight weeks,” said Chang, who plans to discuss his availability for the Davis Cup with Gorman next week when Chang returns home to Placentia.

“The doctors told me what happened to me was really unusual because I didn’t knock into anything,” Chang said. “There was just so much power or something on my swing that it just cracked it.”

Dr. Paul Shirley, medical director of the Assn. of Tennis Professionals, examined Chang at Baptist Medical Center in Jacksonville and diagnosed “a fracture of the cup of the left hip joint right at the point where the ball goes into socket,” O’Keefe said.