Pioline powers on
Muster, Chang also advance at MFS Pro
Posted: Friday August 28, 1998 12:57 AM
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Pioline gets ready for the U.S. Open: . "It's nice to get in some matches this week to get ready for the Open." Mike Hewitt/Allsport |
BROOKLINE, Massachusetts (AP) -- Third-seeded Cedric Pioline and fifth-seeded Thomas Muster led the advance to the quarterfinals in the MFS Pro Tennis Championships on Thursday at Longwood Cricket Club.
Pioline, a former finalist in the U.S. Open and at Wimbledon, used his all-court game to outclass young Australian Andrew Ilie 6-4, 6-3.
Muster, the 1995 French Open champion, beat baseline-hugging Nicolas Lapentti of Ecuador 6-2, 6-4.
Michael Chang, the fourth seed, needed his best clutch shots to get past Kenneth Carlsen 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in a 2-hour, 20-minute struggle.
"The crowd seemed to get behind me after I lost the first set and I was happy about that," Chang said.
"I was able to get the big points and I tried to step it up a little in the third set. I came in a little bit more and if he was going to beat me he had to hit it past me. I had to go out there and make things happen.
"Kenneth is very dangerous on bot sides. He can hit the ball low and hit it past me from either side."
Chang finally won it by breaking Carlsen's service for a 5-4 lead in the third set. He served it out in the next game as Carlsen hit long on the last two points.
In another match between unseeded players, Italian veteran Gianluca Pozzi outlasted Lionel Roux of France 5-7, 6-2, 7-6 (7-3).
"I played a very consistent match," Pioline said. "I knew he could hit winners, but he also makes mistakes because he tries to hit the ball so hard. All I had to do was keep the ball in play."
Pioline came here on a last-minute wild card. "It's nice to get in some matches this week to get ready for the Open," he said.
"I was serving better today than in my first match," Muster said. "He's a very talented player, but he doesn't come to the net, so holding my serve was important."
Muster, who's set to play Pioline on Friday in the quarterfinals, said he's still feeling fit and, at 30, competing against the younger players is not a problem.
"I still can play with guys 10 and 12 years younger than me," he said. "I just have to practice more than I did 10 years ago. If you don't move forward, then you move backward. I feel happy with what I'm doing.
"They used to call me just a clay court player, but that's not true -- I've won on every surface. With me, every match I win is great, every match I lose I try to learn from."
Pozzi, at 33 the oldest player on the ATP tour, lost the first two points of the third-set tiebreaker, then ran off the next six and wrapped up the match with a putaway volley from the net.
"I thought I played a good match, but I shouldn't have lost my serve in the third set, that's why it went to a tiebreaker," said Pozzi, whose quaterfinals match against Chang was scheduled for Friday.
In other quarterfinals matches set for Friday, top-seeded Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden will play qualifier Sebastien Grosjean of France and Paul Haarhuis of the Netherlands will play defending champion Sjeng Schalken of the Netherlands.
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