Ivanisevic Wakes Up His Serve, but Foot Remains Asleep

Sadly, for those interested in entertainment value, today’s final of the Newsweek Champions Cup tournament here will not include Goran Ivanisevic, the clown prince of tennis.

Ivanisevic, the wonderfully talented left-hander from Croatia, by way of Outer Space, lost, 6-2, 7-6 (8-6), to journeyman doubles specialist Paul Haarhuis, who will face journeyman singles specialist Michael Chang in the 11:30 a.m. final. Chang, from Henderson, Nev., by way of Placentia and Coto de Caza and various other higher-taxed California locales, beat fast-rising Chilean Marcelo Rios in the other semifinal, 7-6 (8-6), 6-3.

So, the much-anticipated final, Ivanisevic versus Chang--the man from the Moon versus the man with his feet firmly planted on the ground at all times--did not come to pass. And it did not because of one of those magical, mystical moments that seem to be the special province of Ivanisevic, who first tickled the funny bones of people here by saying there were so many old people that he was afraid to go to restaurants because one of them might die before dessert.

Ivanisevic began his match against Haarhuis like a guy who had been jolted from a deep sleep in the middle of the night. He wandered around, hit a few backhands and forehands and, in 32 minutes, had lost the first set.

But, unlike past years when his mind has gone away and stayed there in numerous matches, this year is Ivanisevic’s best-ever on the tour, and his current No. 6-ranking is based on already reaching seven finals and running up a 33-4 match record, best on the ATP tour.

So, early in the second set, after Haarhuis had built a 2-0 lead, Ivanisevic started cranking up his huge serve and played his way into a tiebreaker. And when he stepped to the service line at 6-5, set point, everybody in the sold-out stadium of 11,500 knew what was coming next.

“I was just praying for a first-serve miss,” said Haarhuis, a victim of many an Ivanisevic bullet over the years.

What he got was just what he expected, and more.

Ivanisevic uncorked a 127-mph rocket that appeared to be close to the “T” in the service box. Unfortunately, nobody will ever know.

The baseline official called Ivanisevic for a foot fault, an infrequent call in tournament tennis, but especially unusual on such a key point. Ivanisevic, who tends to find distractions during his matches even when there aren’t any, blew his lid on this one. He dropped his racket, stood at midcourt, glared at the linesman, grumbled some German and Croatian and, after eventually hitting a second serve and losing the point for 6-6, finally settled on chair umpire Dana Loconto as the object of his main disaffection.

Loconto picked out enough English in the tirade to give Ivanisevic an official warning, which Ivanisevic later said he fully deserved, and two points later, Ivanisevic was headed for the press room to explain his most recent entanglement with the bizarre.

Question: Are you sure the serve was in?

Ivanisevic: Nobody called anything there.

Question: I asked the umpire; he said that they wouldn’t call it because the foot fault was called first. He said he didn’t know if it was in, either.

Ivanisevic: He didn’t know what he was doing there. He didn’t know who played. . . . I think he is indoors somewhere, I don’t know. Too much sun for him today.”

Question: What would the umpire do in that situation? Can he overrule a foot fault call?

Ivanisevic: No.

Question: Then why were you mad at him?

Ivanisevic: Because he didn’t know. All the match he was just up there losing the match a little bit. You know, like I said, a little bit too much sun. It was also, for me, a little bit too much sun, but also the umpire is not a bad guy, but just today, I don’t know. Today, everybody was bad. Also me.

Haarhuis was not bad. The 30-year-old from the Netherlands by way of Armstrong State in Savannah, Ga., and Florida State, where he got his degree in economics in 1988, moved his serve around effectively, showing a skill that helped bring him Grand Slam doubles titles in the the last two years in the Australian, French and U.S. Opens, all with countryman Jacco Eltingh.

He has moved his ranking from No. 68 back down to the mid-20s, where it was a month or so ago before he hit a slide. He has won one tournament in his six years, but a win over Chang today would be his best singles result ever, since the Champions Cup is a Super 9 Series event. A win today would also mean that he has beaten four top 10 players in one tournament, taking out Thomas Enqvist, Pete Sampras and Ivanisevic so far.

Chang, assured of matching his career-best No. 4 ranking with Saturday’s win, was also not bad, surviving one set point at 6-5 of the first set tiebreaker and then running out the match in 1 hour 37 minutes.