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2000 The New York Times Company May 31, 2000, Wednesday, Late Edition - Final SECTION: Section D; Page 5; Column 1; Sports Desk LENGTH: 1000 words HEADLINE: TENNIS; Chang Is Reaching Back For Some of His Past Glory BYLINE: By CHRISTOPHER CLAREY DATELINE: PARIS, May 30 He certainly did not look like a burned-out baseliner on Monday as he dashed over to slap a forehand at full stretch, then scuttled across the clay and hit a winning backhand lob at full stretch over Adrian Voinea's head. Michael Chang still looks like the Michael Chang you remember. He has the ankle supports, the bulging calf muscles and the bowl cut that only a mother or a monk could love. He still appears to have the desire, too -- slapping himself on the thigh before and after the exhausting exchanges that determined the outcome of his first-round victory over Voinea at the French Open. So what gives? Why is Chang no longer considered a Grand Slam threat? Why is he in the top 50 instead of the top 10? Why was he playing his first round here on Court 3, the Roland Garros equivalent of Off Broadway, when his American peers, Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras, were scheduled on Center Court? Why? Why? Why? They are questions Chang has asked himself; and they have emerged in active minds here, especially as rain today washed out play at the French Open, the first time that poor weather has ever forced the postponement of an entire day's matches at Roland Garros. Definitive answers are not easy to come by; tennis is the sum of a dozen parts, some of which cannot be measured with a stopwatch or a stringing machine. But Chang does know that he still wants to play, and that Jim Courier's recent retirement at age 29 is not giving him any ideas at 28. "I still have a belief and a faith that some great things are still going to happen in my career," Chang said. "If I didn't believe that, it makes no sense for me to be out there, and on top of that, I know this is a period of time that God wants me to persevere through. Whether that means something down the line -- if it means another Grand Slam championship or not -- is really not for me to decide. I think if I were to walk away from the game knowing that I still had that desire or that hope I would have regret for the rest of my life. "I just feel like it would be so against my personality to have this struggle in tennis and just give up. I know it's not me, not who I am, and that would probably affect other parts of my life. If you quit once, it's so much easier to quit the second, third, fourth time." So Chang soldiers on, winning slightly more matches than he loses, which is a huge swing from the 10-year stretch between 1989 and 1998 when he won 541 and lost 198. "I admire the fact he's still out here; he could have packed it in, and he hasn't," said Larry Stefanki, the Californian who coaches Yevgeny Kafelnikov. "In the locker room, Chang is Mr. Personality. It seems like he is still fresh. He's not fried, like Courier was. And with all the big matches he's won over the years, that means he's still dangerous." Chang's decline probably started when he lost in the semifinals of the 1997 United States Open to Patrick Rafter, the eventual champion, in straight sets. What made it traumatic was that Sampras and Agassi had already been eliminated, and Chang, then ranked No. 2 in the world, was the clear favorite for the title. Chang has not been past the third round in a Grand Slam event since. "I think that match was definitely a very critical match in my career," Chang said. "Something happened the rest of the year. I know I was pretty tired after that." In 1998, injuries to his left knee and right wrist knocked him back further, but he struck bottom last year, and finished the season at No. 50. The consensus on the tour was that Chang had lost at least a step and considering that speed has always been his biggest asset, it was a step in the wrong direction. "I definitely was a lot slower," Chang said. "I knew it. And it was really annoying, too. It's like one of those dreams you have when someone is chasing you. You're running as fast as you can, and someone's trotting behind you, just out of range, trying to grab onto you." His lost speed was a product not only of the 1998 knee injury but his decision to bulk up with weight training in an attempt to lift his way to No. 1. He has now given up the heavy weights. "After the U.S. Open last year, I realized that I could try to become the strongest guy I could possibly be and I still wouldn't be the strongest guy out there," he said. "I didn't take into consideration that the extra strength would make me slower, and it hurt me." He may still be slower than at his peak, but Stefanki does not believe foot speed was as instrumental in Chang's fall as lost control. "I think he tried to change his game," he said. "The guy is a grinder. He won the French by grinding, and they tried to make him into a shot maker, to make him go for too much. You can't turn a Mats Wilander into a Sampras. But they made that decision as a family, and it cost them." His family remains primordial with Chang. He and his older brother Carl, who has coached him since 1991, own houses on Mercer Island near Seattle, where they often share a fishing boat and Michael does an occasional shift as a baby-sitter for Carl's daughter, Katherine. Their parents, Betty and Joe, who live in Southern California, remain part of the decision-making process, and despite Michael's extended slump, Team Chang remains intact. At Carl's suggestion, though, they have brought in Jay Bosworth, son of the American stringing expert Warren Bosworth, to provide counsel on this European swing. "We've sat down as a family and have looked at changing," Michael said of Carl's role. "And I can see the point of view that change can be helpful, but I just feel there is something special about being able to go through good times and bad times and to be able to look back on a career and say we toughed it out together. And to be quite honest with you, if I ever do win another Grand Slam or become No. 1, I'd always want Carl there." For now, Team Chang will have to settle for something not quite as lofty: the second round at Roland Garros. GRAPHIC: Photo: Michael Chang during his first-round match on Monday at the French Open. (Reuters) LOAD-DATE: May 31, 2000 Copyright © 2000, LEXIS-NEXIS, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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