No More Miracles for Agassi

Defending champion Andre Agassi ran out of miracles at last when human backboard Michael Chang overcame a rib injury Friday to reach the Australian Open final.

The top-ranked Agassi, who clawed from behind in four matches and won three five-setters, played indifferently as a nearly flawless Chang beat him for the first time in a Grand Slam tennis event, 6-1, 6-4, 7-6 (7-1).

Chang, seeking his first Grand Slam championship since he won the French Open at 17 in 1989, will play fourth-seeded Boris Becker, a 6-4, 6-2, 6-0 winner over Mark Woodforde.

On Australia Day, a national holiday, fans had hoped that the popular, 30-year-old Woodforde might score a huge upset for his country. But fourth-seeded Becker has been playing better with each match, and on this day never was threatened. The 28-year-old German, winner of five Grand Slam titles, closed out the match with two of his dozen aces.

Agassi, who had won 12 consecutive matches over two years at the Australian, left the tournament with the No. 1 ranking but without the prize he wanted most--another Grand Slam title.

“If you’re No. 1 in the world, it doesn’t mean that you’re safe anymore,” said Chang, seeded fifth. “Obviously you have to be out there playing your best tennis.”

Agassi obviously wasn’t. He said he decided to “go for the miracle” in coming back from two sets down against Jim Courier in the quarters, but made little effort to do that same against Chang.

Though Agassi had beaten Chang in nine of their last 13 matches, and in all three of their Grand Slam matches, there was little surprise in Chang’s victory this time after the way they had been playing over the last two weeks.

Agassi started the tournament following a 3 1/2-month layoff because of a chest muscle injury. Chang came in healthy, winning a tuneup exhibition the week before the Australian Open.

“I felt rather flat,” Agassi said. “I’ve played a lot of sets. To play against the wind, against a guy like Michael who’s going to move you from corner to corner, I took a lot of chances. I just didn’t have it.”

Unhampered by strained rib cartilage, Chang served 13 aces against the best returner in tennis, and made only 22 errors to Agassi’s uncharacteristic 60 on a wind-whipped afternoon.

Agassi hit lazy drop shots that floated into the net, and he slugged wild shots that soared at times 10 feet wide or long. He made no effort for some balls that might have been within his reach, as if he had nothing left after so many comebacks.

“Sometimes your eyes are bigger than your stomach,” Brad Gilbert, Agassi’s coach, said of his belief that he could win this tournament again. “His body just didn’t have it for him today. I think he was tired after playing 22 sets in this tournament.

“If you haven’t got freshness in your legs against Michael Chang, you’ve got a problem because against Michael, you can’t hit one-shot winners. Chang only played average, but then again Andre didn’t make him play very well.

“He’ll be disappointed that he’s not here on Sunday, but this means we’ll be watching the Super Bowl.”

Chang, despite the rib injury, had fresh legs as he advanced to the final without losing a set in any of his six matches. He hit serves at up to 122 mph, but many of his aces were much slower, well-placed slices that caught Agassi by surprise.

Chang served three of those aces to close the second game of the third set.

Agassi struggled all match to hold serve, never more than in the ninth of the second set, which went to deuce 11 times before Agassi finally held with the second of his three aces.

Seven years after Chang became the youngest men’s Grand Slam winner in history, he’ll have a chance to win another major. At 5 feet 9, he is an anomaly in the world of taller tennis champions, but the one-inch longer racket he has been using the past year has helped him overcome that.

He reached his only other major final last year at the French Open, losing to Thomas Muster.

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In the women’s final, on ESPN tonight at 6:30 PST but played Saturday in Melbourne, Monica Seles faces Germany’s Anke Huber.