TENNIS ROUNDUP : Chang Rallies for ATP Title

Michael Chang rebounded from being shut out in the second set and defeated Stefan Edberg, 7-5, 0-6, 6-4, Sunday to gain the Assn. of Tennis Professionals Championship at Mason, Ohio.

“I was thinking that although the first set was so close, in the second set he was just controlling everything and I had to change things around,” said Chang, whose victory moved him up two spots to seventh in the ATP Tour rankings.

“I decided if I was going to go out losing, I’d rather go out losing by going for my shots and playing the game I want to play. I think I put a little bit more pressure on Stefan to come in on some balls, and I think a few more errors started to sneak into his game.”

Chang broke Edberg only twice in the match, but that was enough as he won his third ATP Tour title this year. He also won at Jakarta, Indonesia, and Osaka, Japan.

“He just runs down a lot of balls,” Edberg said of Chang. “He was sort of ahead all the time. He makes you work really hard. I guess he was a couple of points better than I was today.”

Chang, 21, reached the title match by beating Agassi in three sets Saturday, and Sunday’s match was almost a replay. Against Agassi, he won a close first set, appeared to collapse in the second, then rallied to win.

“I tend to have longer matches for some reason,” said Chang, who needed three sets to win his last three matches. “It doesn’t matter the season or the surface.”

Both players had reason to feel fatigued Sunday. Chang experienced nausea and dehydration during his match against Agassi, and Edberg needed three sets to eliminate top-ranked Pete Sampras Saturday night. Edberg then played a doubles match that lasted past midnight.

But neither showed any serious effects, other than Chang’s lapse in the second set.

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Top-seeded Thomas Muster defeated Renzo Furlan, 7-5, 7-5, to win an ATP tournament at San Marino, Italy.

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Reigning 16-year-old champion Paul Goldstein of Rockville, Md., defeated Cecil Mamiit of Los Angeles, 2-6, 6-1, 6-2, to win the 18-year-old division of the national boys tennis championships at Kalamazoo, Mich.