TENNIS ROUNDUP : Chang Loses in First Round Again, This Time in Rome

Nearly one year after he made headlines by winning the French Open at age 17, Chang hit another low point Tuesday when he lost his first-round match at the Italian Open in Rome.

“My confidence is not the highest it’s ever been,” the seventh-seeded Chang said after being eliminated by Sweden’s Jan Gunnarsson, 6-3, 6-3. “It’s frustrating. It’s been rough the last few weeks.

“I don’t know exactly what it is,” Chang said. “Everybody goes through their rough times and this just happens to be mine.”

Chang has lost his first match in three consecutive tournaments. His record for the year is 2-5.

“But I’m not going to let this break me down. I’m 18 and I’ve got at least 10 more years in me . . .

“I think everybody compares everything I do to the French Open, which makes it difficult.”

Chang gained his only service break in the opening game of the second set, but Gunnarsson won the next four games.

In another upset, unseeded Guy Forget of France beat No. 15 Petr Korda of Czechoslovakia, 6-3, 6-2. Carl-Uwe Steeb of West Germany withdrew because of hand blisters.

Playing in front of East German fans for the first time, Steffi Graf swept Mercedes Paz of Argentina, 6-1, 6-2, at the German Open in West Berlin.

“I wanted to do well for them (the East Germans). When you are on the court you just concentrate on playing, but I wanted to show them some good shots,” Graf said.

More than 400 from East Germany crowded into a specially built stand at the Rot-Weiss tennis club.

Unseeded Eveline Hamers, who on Monday upset top-seeded Meredith McGrath of Stanford, defeated USC’s Lupita Novelo, 4-6, 6-1, 6-3, in the quarterfinals of the NCAA women’s championships at Gainesville, Fla.

In today’s matches, Hamers, a Kansas sophomore who is from the Netherlands, will play No. 7 Nicole Arendt of Florida, and No. 5 Sandra Birch will play Stanford teammate Debbie Graham.

Graham, seeded sixth, eliminated No. 2 Ginger Helgeson of Pepperdine.