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Future outlasts past Roddick survives five-set marathon against Chang
Updated: Wednesday May 30, 2001 6:35 PM
PARIS (AP) -- Hobbled by cramps near the finish of a five-set French Open marathon, Andy Roddick almost collapsed to the clay. Between points he grimaced, limped, staggered, hopped on one foot, bent over in pain and leaned on a linesman for support. But the 18-year-old American, whose flair for the dramatic rivals his abundant talent, kept playing and kept slamming aces -- 37 in all. And after 3 hours, 50 minutes of tennis Wednesday, he hobbled to the net a winner, 5-7, 6-3, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 7-5. It was a gallant triumph reminiscent of Michael Chang -- who just happened to be Roddick's opponent. On the same center court in 1989, a 17-year-old Chang cramped so badly in a round-of-16 five-setter that he served underhand at one point. He still managed to beat Ivan Lendl and went on to win the championship, his only Grand Slam title. Roddick was 6 at the time and watched that match on television. "It's pretty ironic," Roddick said. "That's one of my first memories of tennis. I think I went out and played for three hours after that. It really inspired me." Chang also thought of that match during his latest endurance contest. "Similar circumstances," said Chang, the loser this time. "God works in his funny ways." And did Roddick ever consider serving underhand? "I was doing all right overhand," he said. "My underhand serve is suspect -- not one of my biggest weapons." As second-round matches between unseeded players go, this was an epic -- perhaps the first of many for Roddick, who has been touted as the next great American player. In just his third Grand Slam match, a crowd that jeered him early chanted his name at the finish: "An-dee! An-dee!" It was the final match of the day, ending in shadows at 9:04 p.m., and by far the most noteworthy. No. 7 Elena Dementieva was the only seeded player to lose in either draw, falling 7-5, 7-5 to Slovakia's Henrieta Nagyova. Top-seeded Gustavo Kuerten, bidding for his third French title, beat Agustin Calleri 6-4, 6-4, 6-4. No. 6 Lleyton Hewitt swept qualifier Nikolay Davydenko 6-0, 6-1, 6-3. Hewitt, another youngster touted as a future Grand Slam champion, will play Roddick in a third-round showdown Friday. The Australian saw part of the Roddick-Chang match. "I watched their first set," Hewitt said. "Then I played three straightforward sets and got to see the end of it." The marathon was a seesaw struggle from the first game, when Chang had five break points and failed to convert. Roddick, sliding on the clay like a gangly colt, raced to a 4-1 lead but then began to spray his shots. When he double-faulted on a key point, he angrily spiked his racket, and the crowd whistled its disapproval.
"When I first went out there, the court seemed huge," he said. "I was rushing a lot. I was just out there playing brainless tennis, kind of like an 18-year-old playing for the first time on stadium court at Roland Garros, I guess." He blew that first set, won the next two and squandered a chance to close out the fourth, when he had two serves leading 5-4 in the tiebreaker. By then, three hours into a match that began in sunny, 88-degree weather, he was starting to cramp from dehydration. "I really, really wanted to win the fourth set," he said. "I was struggling." The symptoms worsened in the eighth game of the final set. Roddick clutched his left hamstring and grimaced after chasing down a shot, then began to pull up in pain after almost every point. The 29-year-old Chang, meanwhile, looked like he could play another five sets. Roddick said the symptoms were worst in his calves, groin and hand. "My hand was doing this cool bendy thingy," he said. "I was just hoping that I could hold out long enough before I would be on my back or rolling over or something." Roddick's serve is already among the game's best, and it kept him in the match when he could barely walk. He topped out at 135 mph, and his ace total was the highest at the French Open since at least 1991, when the ATP Tour started keeping such records. "That serve really saved him," Chang said. "I was surprised that he was really able to keep up the serving to that degree." Desperate to end each point, Roddick hit a drop shot for a winner to take a 5-4 lead, briefly received treatment from a trainer and limped back onto the court. He had a match point in the next game but slammed a forehand into the net, and when Chang evened the set at 5-5, Roddick retreated to the backstop and theatrically leaned against a smiling linesman. "You don't play 3 1/2 hours to lay down and die when it gets tough," Roddick said. "You give it your all until the last ball." Swinging with abandon, even by his freewheeling standards, Roddick held serve, belted two winners in the next game and reached a second match point. He managed to endure a 17-shot rally and sent a forehand sizzling into the corner, and Chang's desperate reply floated wide. The crowd erupted, and Roddick grabbed his cap and bent over, head between his knees. "Relief, joy -- you can't even explain a moment like that," he said. "I almost wanted to cry, but I wanted to scream and yell at the same time." He shook hands with a gracious Chang, who offered Roddick some advice: "Get a lot of minerals in your body." Chang would know. He's been there.
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