TENNIS ROUNDUP : Chang Upsets Courier at World Championships

Michael Chang, who seldom beats Jim Courier and never wins in the ATP Tour World Championships, overcame both obstacles on Tuesday in a first-round match in the tour-ending event at Frankfurt, Germany.

Taking advantage of his speed, Chang beat Courier, the world’s No. 2-ranked player, 6-4, 6-0.

Chang will play Michael Stich, a 6-3, 6-4 winner over Andrei Medvedev, a rookie in the event.

Chang, winless in six matches in two previous appearances in the world championships, broke Courier for a 5-4 lead in the first set and didn’t lose another game.

Chang wrapped up the match in only 85 minutes to go 1-0 in the round-robin portion of the $2.75-million event.

In an other match, Stefan Edberg, the 1989 champion, beat Sergi Bruguera, 6-2, 6-4, after coming back from a 3-0 deficit in the second set.

The championship pits the top eight players in the world, who are split into two groups. Courier and Medvedev remain in the running despite their defeats, but one will probably be eliminated when they face each other today.

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Jana Novotna of the Czech Republic outlasted Zina Garrison-Jackson in three sets to advance to the second round of the $3.5-million season-ending Virginia Slims Championships at New York.

Novotna, the seventh-seeded player in the 16-player field, squandered a 5-2 lead in the second-set tiebreaker before registering a 6-4, 6-7 (7-5), 6-3 victory on the blue carpet at Madison Square Garden.

Novotna will face the winner of Tuesday’s later first-round match between second seed Arantxa Sanchez Vicario of Spain and Helena Sukova of the Czech Republic.