TENNIS MEN AT INDIAN WELLS : Edberg Turns Back Chang in 3 Sets

You’re Stefan Edberg, you’re No. 1, you’ve come to the desert to knock the golf ball around a little, start a tan and play some tennis and before you know it, you’re only, say, a chip shot away from getting an uninterrupted tee time for the morning.

So, what happened?

“I escaped,” Edberg said.

There are reasons why Sweden’s Edberg is ranked the top player in tennis, but Friday afternoon in the Newsweek Champions Cup, his explanation was sort of a mystery.

Edberg survived three foot faults, 55 unforced errors, a crucial overrule, two net cord shots and a first-serve percentage that would freeze a fiord and still eluded an upset to score a 1-6, 6-2, 7-5 victory over Michael Chang.

Edberg’s reaction to reaching the semifinals? He acted as if he had just taken his Volvo to the car wash.

“After the first set, it was a bit doubtful I would be coming back (today),” Edberg said in his usual understated fashion.

Actually, today’s semifinals at Hyatt Grand Champions are sort of understated, too. For a tournament that once counted nine of the top 10 ranked players entered, only two remain--Edberg and No. 5 Guy Forget.

While Boris Becker and Pete Sampras withdrew because of injuries; Andre Agassi, Goran Ivanisevic, Thomas Muster, Emilio Sanchez and Andres Gomez left in the conventional manner--on the court.

Edberg and Forget meet in one semifinal while 22-year-old German Michael Stich, a former soccer player, and 20-year-old Floridian Jim Courier, a former Little Leaguer, face off in the other.

Chang’s chance to banish Edberg disappeared in a pivotal ninth game in the last set. Chang blew five break points at 4-4 and wound up losing the game despite once holding an 0-40 edge. That game would cost him.

“You just can’t do that against the top players,” Chang said. “It just kind of slipped away.”

While Edberg was slipping into today’s semifinals, Courier came crashing into them, once again riding a huge forehand that seems a lot bigger than his hometown of Dade City, Fla.

But Courier, who dispatched Sanchez, 6-2, 6-2, brings a game that is becoming a lot more well rounded than Dade City back home.

“They call us Dead City sometimes,” Courier said. “Hicksville.”

These days Courier’s performances are looking positively cosmopolitan. There used to be a routine to how he played a match, Courier said.

“I would just slam balls into the corners,” Courier said. “If they hit the line, I won. If I missed by an inch, I’d lose. You have to miss sometime, unless you’re so good you never miss the line.”

A semifinalist here a year ago, Courier was unlucky enough to run into Edberg, who was on his way to winning the tournament, beating Agassi in the final. In Stich, Courier is facing one of the hottest players on the tour this year with four semifinals in six tournaments.

Stich needed three sets to beat Richey Reneberg, 6-0, 2-6, 6-4, but they were quick sets, only 88 minutes. Forget needed 73 minutes to defeat Scott Davis, 7-5, 6-1.

Forget’s path to the semifinals coincides with a remarkable surge in the rankings, moving up from No. 16, where he began the year. Unlike his French counterparts, Yannick Noah and Henri Leconte, Forget is neither flamboyant nor recognizable.

“I’m just another French boy on the streets,” Forget said.

Before his emergence in the top five, Forget’s claim to fame was his shaved head, which he also convinced Swiss partner Jakob Hlasek to do just before they won the IBM World Doubles Final in late November.

Forget’s hair is back now, but he remembers how he looked before.

“We felt pretty stupid after a couple of days,” Forget said. “When it started to grow back, in the morning it was pretty ugly.”

It could have turned similarly ugly for Edberg, down 0-40, in the pivotal game of the third set. He fought back to 30-40, but his first serve which he thought was good, but chair umpire Mike Loo overruled.

Edberg eventually won the point and the game, but not until registering a complaint that was mild by John McEnroe standards but pretty florid for his own.

“Even I get upset every once in awhile,” Edberg said.

As far as being upset by Chang, Edberg would have none of it, which mildly surprised Chang. There have been times when Edberg’s mental toughness did not equal that of a No. 1 player.

“A lot of times, when he was down, he’d sort of fold over,” Chang said. “Now he’s No. 1 and he’s realized he just can’t. He’s much more a fighter now.”