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French Open Notebook
Despite frightful showing, Chang says U.S. men not washed up
Posted: Sunday May 31, 1998 06:49 PM
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Chang, the 1989 champion, was eliminated Saturday by Francisco Clavet (AP) |
PARIS (AP) -- Andre Agassi lost in the first round. Jim Courier
and Pete Sampras were knocked out in the second. Michael
Chang bid "au revoir" in the third round of the French Open.
The four Americans streaked to stardom in their late teens and
early 20s, and have combined to win 18 Grand Slam titles. But
they're between 26 and 28 years old now, and a new generation of
younger players threatens to take control of tennis.
Agassi has not won a Grand Slam title since 1995, Courier since
1993 and Chang since his only title at the 1989 French Open.
Sampras probably will lose his No. 1 ranking this week to
22-year-old Marcelo Rios.
But Chang rejects suggestions the quartet that has dominated
American tennis for the past decade is over the hill.
"I don't believe that the four of us are aging and kind of
going off into the sunset yet," he said after being eliminated
from the French Open on Saturday. "I think we've still got quite a
few great years left."
Lindsay who?
Lindsay Davenport is the No. 2 women's player in
the world and has reached the quarterfinals of the French Open for
the second time in three years.
She advanced to the final eight with a 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 victory
over No. 14 Sandrine Testud of France on Sunday, joining American
compatriots Monica Seles and Venus Williams in the quarterfinals.
Even though her match against Testud was on center court,
Davenport has garnered little of the attention of peers such as
Martina Hingis, Anna Kournikova or Venus and Serena Williams.
And that's just fine with Davenport, who is realistic about her
chances at Roland Garros and is not about to start campaigning for
more publicity.
"I don't look at it as anything to prove. I'm the second seed,
but I haven't played like the No. 2 player in the world," she
said. "On clay, I wouldn't consider myself the second favorite to
win here. Clay is not my favorite surface. I don't see myself
winning Roland Garros a bunch of times or whatever."
But that doesn't mean she's completely counting herself out.
After all, clay has a way of creating unusual champions.
"Who would have thought Iva Majoli would have won last year? So
everybody feels they have a chance," she said. "I'm thrilled I'm
in the quarters right now. I mean, this is my least favorite
surface, and I'm still here."
Clay lovers
For lovers of clay-court tennis, the place to be
Sunday was on Court 1 for the resumption of the match between
Argentina's Hernan Gumy and Spain's Alex Corretja, the 14th seed.
The two had battled from the baseline for nearly four hours on
Saturday when rain forced them to stop for the night. They finally
finished the 5-hour, 31-minute match Sunday afternoon.
Corretja won 6-1, 5-7, 6-7 (4-7), 7-5, 9-7 in a match that
featured long, intense rallies during which the players groaned and
grunted and slid all over the court.
Gumy rallied from 5-1 down in the fifth set, saving two match
points before knotting the set at 5-all. The two players then
stayed on serve until Corretja broke Gumy's serve in the 16th and
last game of the set.
"For me, it wasn't too long," Gumy said of by far the longest
match so far during the tournament. "I played it in two days. I
played like four hours yesterday and another couple of hours
today."
Miscellaneous
American men are not the only ones who were
shut out of the fourth round at Roland Garros this year. This is
just the second French Open since Bjorn Borg first played in Paris
in 1973 that no Swedish man made the final 16. The only other time
was 1977, when Borg did not play in the tournament.
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