Chang Not Fooled for Long

Michael Chang needed only one set to get his bearings. Ten games before the computer kicked in, before his analytic mind printed out the solution. Forty-four minutes in which Bohdan Ulihrach was allowed to lull himself into a sense of gladness, having so dominated the No. 3-ranked player in the world.

Once Chang processed the puzzlement of Ulihrach’s game and devised the proper program for crushing it, the young Czech’s abruptly vanished. He had been spotted his set, shown an opening and failed to pursue it. Chang defended his title at the Newsweek Champions Cup on Sunday, by thinking his way out of a shaky first set to a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 victory and second title of the year.

Chang’s usual meticulous pre-match preparation was useless against Ulihrach, an unseeded clay-court player from the Czech Republic whom Chang had never played. Chang assumed that Ulihrach, ranked No. 43, would play a slicing and spinning game similar to the one played by Thomas Muster, who Chang beat in the semifinal at the Hyatt Grand Champions Resort.

Chang expected the high-bouncing shots would allow him time to prepare his response. Instead, low, flat, hard shots came whizzing by him as he stood flat-footed and befuddled.

“In the beginning, he was playing some incredible tennis,” Chang said. “We were trading groundstrokes and all of a sudden he ripped a backhand down-the-line winner from nowhere.

“I just kind of stood there. I didn’t know how to go about doing things. I think, as the match went on, I started to see a few cracks and exploit those a little bit.”

It was Chang who had the cracks in the first set. Ulihrach began well, breaking Chang in the first game of the first set. Chang looked uncharacteristically tentative and clueless: Ulihrach appeared not to notice Chang’s distress. The Czech player was so relaxed and playing so fluidly that Chang’s scurrying and scrambling around the court seemed like the beginnings of panic.

Ulihrach may not have then understood that a running, retrieving Michael Chang is a thinking, working Michael Chang. He did not sense the danger.

“I started thinking I could win,” Ulihrach said. “But this is best of five. You have to concentrate all the game, every point. I lost a little bit of concentration at the beginning of the second set and he broke me.”

Not for the last time. Chang broke in the eighth game of the second set and that was enough to give Chang the set and get him back into the match. Chang began to crank up his serve--he had 12 aces for the match. Ulihrach, who had returned so well all week, couldn’t solve Chang’s “changeup” serving style, in which he fires a 120-mph first serve then pats one over at 87 mph.

The match remained deceptively close, but once Chang established his pattern of play, he was more comfortable in going for shots.

“I never like to be in a situation where it takes me a set to figure out what’s going on,” he said. “A set to figure out where his strengths are, what his weaknesses are, where he’s hurting me. I don’t like to do that.”

As usual, Chang worked hard for his paycheck of $337,000. His frenetic style was in contrast to Ulihrach’s more languid approach, but Chang wore down his foe.

The best-of-five-set match lasted 2 hours 39 minutes and the 22-year-old Ulihrach admitted to exhaustion.

Chang does that to people.

Still, Ulihrach has much to celebrate. Like other clay-court specialists on the tour, Ulihrach has dedicated himself to mastering the faster surface. His performance at this tournament seems to indicate progress in that area. Going into the final, Ulihrach had not lost a set and he beat Pete Sampras. A good week, by any standard.

“A wonderful week for me, best week of my life,” he said. Ulihrach will be rewarded by moving into the top 30 in today’s rankings.

* RISING STAR: With many big names down and out for various reasons, tennis is in the doldrums and Sports Editor Bill Dwyre thinks this is a great time for Venus Williams to assert herself.C14