Edberg Shows Why He’s Saying Farewell

Sport took a back seat to sentiment Saturday when Stefan Edberg played his final sets of tennis on the courts of Los Angeles.

Old-foe Michael Chang defeated Edberg, 6-3, 6-2, in the semifinals of the Infiniti Open.

Chang will play Richard Krajicek in today’s final at 4 p.m. at the Los Angeles Tennis Center. Krajicek, who won Wimbledon last month, defeated Sandon Stolle, 6-3, 6-1, in the semifinals.

For Edberg, who is making a farewell tour this year, the match provided support for his decision to retire--Edberg is 12-9 against Chang in his career, but Chang has won five of their last six meetings.

Although the product on the court was flat, emotions ran high. Chang and Edberg have chased each other around the court for years, Chang returning Edberg’s powerful serves and reaching his nearly unreachable volleys.

With each glimpse of the old cat-and-mouse act, the crowd of 6,814 at the Los Angeles Tennis Center reacted with loud applause.

“I played a lot of great points, but they were too far apart,” Edberg said.

All year, Edberg, 30, has pointed to his inconsistency on the court to explain his decision to retire. In the past few months, that decision has looked suspect as Edberg advanced to three tournament semifinals.

But after his match against Chang, Edberg was able to say, “I told you so.”

After winning the first set, Chang broke Edberg to take a 1-0 lead in the second. Then, Edberg’s normally reliable serve began to show signs of wear: he double-faulted twice to lose his serve and fell behind, 4-1.

On his last point in Los Angeles, Edberg returned Chang’s second serve with a forehand into the net.

“I’m one of the many, many people in the world who is really going to miss Stefan in the world of tennis, but the year is not over yet, so I’m sure I’ll see him again,” Chang said.

The match was remarkably different from Edberg’s previous three matches in the tournament, in which he won a tournament-leading 93% of his service games and never dropped a set.

And for Edberg, it was a case in point.

“I can serve well for two matches but then I have a match that I don’t quite get up to. My lows are a little bit lower than they used to be,” he said.

The crowd, however, seemed less interested in his level of play than in the opportunity to say farewell. It was Edberg’s sixth appearance in this tournament and he has advanced to the semifinals all six times, defeating Chang to win it in 1990.

The match also brought Edberg’s career full circle in one sense--in 1984 the 18-year-old broke into the spotlight when he won a gold medal for Sweden in the Olympic tennis demonstration at the Los Angeles Tennis Center.

Ironically, as Edberg was bidding

adieu to the court where he won his gold medal, announcer Mike Walden gave the scores of Andre Agassi’s gold-medal victory.

Chang, meanwhile, is playing some of his best tennis. He is ranked a career-high No. 3.

“He is serving big first serves, he is moving in the court, he is coming to the net, and he is a much better player, there’s no doubt about it,” Edberg said.

Chang advanced to the finals of the Australian Open, where he lost to Boris Becker, and rode the wave of championship performances at Indian Wells and Washington into Los Angeles.

Edberg plans to play in the U.S. Open later this month--his 54th appearance in a Grand Slam event--before playing his last tournament at Stockholm.