The Change in Chang: Fight Is Missing, Psyche Fragile

Monica Seles and Michael Chang, two of the top name players in pro tennis, left the premises Monday in the Evert Cup/Newsweek Champions Cup combined events. There was little similarity in their departures.

Seles, ranked No. 3 in the world and seeded No. 3 here, got beat on a bad day, losing to Henrieta Nagyova of Slovakia, 6-2, 6-4.

“My mind wasn’t there,” said Seles, who made 27 unforced errors to Nagyova’s 16 and, basically, just didn’t show up for the match. It happens, and it happened to Seles on Monday.

Chang, on the other hand, went quietly, something of a trend of late and something that the former Michael Chang, the one that was ranked No. 2 in the world until mid-1997, never let happen.

Chang lost to Dutch journeyman Jan Siemerink, 7-5, 6-3, in a match that, by Chang fight-to-the-death standards, was embarrassing for its lack of exactly that.

Chang turned 27 a couple of weeks ago, still young even by pro tennis standards. And he has won three times here, most recently in ’97. But he is now No. 39, and if there is a light at the end of his tunnel, it is fairly faint now.

To that regard, his post-match news conference focused on two topics, neither favorites of Chang:

* The possibility that he is at the end of his long and productive career.

* His memories of his past glories, mainly the 10-year anniversary of his only Grand Slam title, the 1989 French Open.

To the first line of questioning, Chang responded, “I think I know in time it’s going to come around. I feel like it’s a matter of time. . . it’s not there for me right now, but it will be.”

He also said, “I feel like I know my best tennis is ahead of me.”

To the second line of questioning, Chang said, “See, the thing is that the French Open will always be a great memory for me. The thing is, I’m 27 years old now. I feel like, when you start kind of reminiscing too much about the past, you feel like you are looking back in your career.”

Were Sigmund Freud alive today. . .

Chang always lived on his grit and grind. He will remain forever locked in the memory of tennis fans for his ’89 French match with Ivan Lendl, en route to the title, when he fought his way through cramps and even served underhanded at one point.

Since he began on the pro tour in 1987 as a fireplug junior star, he has built a career of nearly $18 million in winnings through perseverance. For years, one of the more frightening things for his opponents was to end up in a fifth set with him. Or a third. As one now-retired pro once said, “You’d know that you’d have to shoot him to beat him, and you considered it.”

Monday, Siemerink had to do considerably less than that. No. 32 in the world and a player whose best Grand Slam finish was last year’s quarterfinals of Wimbledon, Siemerink served and volleyed Chang off the court--on a medium slow surface that is Chang’s best. And when Chang wasn’t struggling with Siemerink’s low 100s quirky left-handed serve, he was struggling to hold his own against Siemerink’s chip-and-charge-at-will tactics. Against most of the top pros, Siemerink could expect to get his head taken off doing that.

Chang even had a classic Chang-like opportunity presented to him when Siemerink, serving just three points away from the match, took a hard fall on a volley attempt and spent the next 10 minutes on the sideline. Chang even broke that serve, but then, on his own serve, with a fairly partisan crowd on the Stadium court conjuring up memories of past heroic comebacks and cheering him on, he left like a guy trying to catch a bus. At the end, Siemerink was even beating him from the baseline.

“Right now, the desire to go out there and work hard is still there,” Chang said. “Maintaining a positive attitude, knowing that in time, God’s going to take care of everything.”

Are you listening, Sigmund?

*

No. 1 Martina Hingis put a stop to the seeded casualties in the Evert Cup, taking out 10th-seeded Patty Schnyder of Switzerland in Monday evening’s singles feature, 6-1, 6-3. No. 2 Lindsay Davenport had lost Sunday, followed by No. 3 Seles’ defeat earlier in the day. . . . Andre Agassi, seeded No. 9 here, pulled out of the Newsweek tournament with a hamstring strain he suffered Saturday in a tournament in Scottsdale, Ariz., where he was playing a semifinal match against Jan-Michael Gambill. Agassi had played here 11 years in a row, losing in the final in 1990 and 1995. . . . Greg Rusedski of England, seeded 10th, beat 1998 Australian Open champion Petr Korda, 6-3, 6-4, and then sent reporters from his country and the U.S. scrambling. In his news conference, Rusedski, a member of England’s Davis Cup team that will play the United States in England next month, said he had heard rumors that Pete Sampras was reconsidering and might play for the U.S. after all. That was a big story, if true, because the U.S. team is Jim Courier and Todd Martin. Eventually, Sampras’ agent debunked it. . . . Rusedski, who holds the tour record with a serve of 149 mph, hit a couple 141 mph Monday. “It’s great here. This is a place you can get a speed record, because the air is so thin,” he said. . . . Paul Haarhuis of the Netherlands, a finalist here in 1996, turned 30 three weeks ago and celebrated by defeating 15th-seeded Alberto Costa of Spain, 7-5, 6-1.

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Today’s Featured Matches

At Grand Champions Resort, Stadium Court

Beginning at 10 a.m.

* Steffi Graf, Germany (5) vs. Al Sugiyama, Japan.

* Patrick Rafter, Australia (5) vs. Nicolas Kiefer, Germany.

* Gustavo Kuerten, Brazil vs. Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Russia (2).

* Cara Black, Zimbabwe vs. Serena Williams.

Beginning at 6:30 p.m.

* Mary Pierce, France (6) vs. Rita Grande, Italy.

* Hicham Arazi, Morocco vs. Tim Henman, England (7).

Clubhouse Court, beginning at 10 a.m.

* Todd Martin (11) vs. Todd Woodbridge, Australia.

* Goran Ivanisevic, Croatia (14) vs. Alberto Berasategui, Spain.

* Jana Novotna, Czechoslovakia (4) vs. Brie Rippner.