From: clin@eng.umd.edu (Charles Lin)
Subject: US Open -- Thursday results
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 92 17:44:16 GMT
Organization: College of Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park
Originator: clin@coke.eng.umd.edu



    As people have read, Chang won the match against Ferreira in the fifth.
The match had Ferreira starting up a break in the first, then falling
behind two to lost it, 7-5.  The second set went to Ferreira (they
said he was playng quite well) 6-2.  Chang came back to win the third,
6-3, then in the middle of the fourth, Ferreira injured a hamstring
or some part of his upper leg, and had to have his leg wrapped by a
trainer.  Still, he played very well to force the match into a tiebreaker
where his record in tiebreaks is much better than Chang's.  Chang lost
this tiebreaker, and the match went to a fifth, where Chang got
up a break early, and then got another one.  At 5-1, and match point,
Chang came to the net, hit a volley that appeared to either be on
the line or out.  Ferreira hit a wild shot out, but no call was
made, so Chang slowly rose two fists in victory.

    I only saw some of the highlights of the first two sets.  Needless
to say, Edberg looked quite sharp hitting his volleys.  He took
the first 6-3, 6-3.   In the third, Lendl had to save some break
points, but they showed a game where Edberg served quite poorly
to lose his serve, and Lendl held for 6-4.  Then, in the fifth,
Lendl struggled a bit on serve as well, especially at 4-5, he
went down 0-40, then hit a second serve, which Edberg returned
deep,  and Lendl sliced awkwardly to midcourt, and Edberg floated
a shot to net.  On the next point, Edberg approached the net, where
Lendl made two attempts at a pass (the second being pretty decent)
and Edberg hit something of a deep drop volley which Lendl ran up to
and hit for an angle, and Edberg hit it into the net.  Lendl then
came up with a good serve to tie it up.  Edberg came to net again,
and Lendl tried a sliced lob which Edberg put away, and again
it was match point.  I think Lendl pulled out another good serve,
then he played a serve and volley point to bring it to advantage,
then he hit a serve that Edberg hit long on return.

   Lendl than proceeded to hit three return winners, mostly on
Edberg's second serve.  Edberg brought it back to 30-40, but
then hit a volley wide to lose his serve.  Then, it began to
rain.  This was just before 11 pm,  and I had the feeling that
if it stopped raining before 11:30, when CBS began the telecast,
they would want the players to play (CBS, that is).  Sure enough,
11:30 rolls around, and you see Edberg and Lendl headed to
court.  Actually, the court wasn't completely ready at that
point, but you know how tv folks like to have the players show
up just at the time they begin telecast.

   Anyway, Lendl started off pretty hot and closed out the set.
Edberg held, Lendl held, then Edberg held.  At 2-1 to Edberg,
the rain began to fall again, and it was finally decided to
play the final set today after the men's doubles finals.
The women's semis are to be played afterwards.

   This has turned out to be something of a suprise on both sides.
Edberg struggled in his previous match against Krajicek, and
yet he started off very well in this match, and though he had
a few bad service games to lost the third and fourth set, he
still hung pretty tough.  However, the crowd, surprisingly, favored
Lendl (and seemed to do so in the previous round against Becker).
Lendl kept himself in the match, and took advantage of the opportunities
when he saw them, and also played very strong to prevent himself
from getting broken.   It seems more key in the Edberg--Lendl match
to hold serve than in the Chang-Ferreira match where there were
quite a lot of breaks.  That's why I felt more tension watching this,
especially with Lendl down match points.   McEnroe, who may not
get along so well with Lendl,  certainly respects Lendl and the
work he puts in, was glowing with positive comments about Lendl
having a lot of "heart" to stay in this match.

   I would guess that a new day would probably favor Edberg.
It's under daylight.  He can talk to his coach and get the
thought of losing those match points out of his head, and
try again.   Lendl will need to start up quite warmed up
because Edberg started off fast yesterday.  Anyway, we'll see
what happens.

--
Charles Lin
clin@eng.umd.edu
Newsgroups: rec.sport.tennis