May 31, 1996, Friday
SPORTS DESK
New York Times
Edberg Wins Match and Earns Ovation in Paris
By ROBIN FINN
PARIS, May 30 -- Stefan Edberg, loath to retire without a French Open title to balance out his Grand Slam collection, still has Paris.
Today at the French Open, where 88-degree sunshine sent more than one fair-weather spectator to the hospital, the 30-year-old Swede kept his cool against a long-haired Spanish hotshot in a headband.
Edberg, using a game of fearless and relentless serve-and-volley on Center Court, trampled 20th-ranked Carlos Moya, 6-2, 6-1, 6-1.
"I think it was one of those days where everything that you do turns into gold; I felt like I was 20 today," said Edberg, who received a standing ovation when he left the court. The chastened Moya made his most succinct comment in the second-round match when he clenched his towel between his teeth in a clear gesture of surrender just after Edberg soared off to a 5-0 lead in the final set.
"It's his last French Open, and he must really be motivated: he never let me into the game," said Moya, who more than once simply tossed his racquet in the direction of Edberg's laser-esque volleys.
Moya is just 19, but already a bigshot on red clay; earlier this month he ended the 38-match winning streak of Thomas Muster. Edberg, however, made short work of the teen-ager.
"Maybe I took him a little bit by surprise," said Edberg, who owns six Grand Slam singles crowns, but in a dozen visits here got no closer to this one than the 1989 final.
Edberg has less than fond memories of that match, which was won by Michael Chang. As fate would have it, he next faces Chang, who outlasted Richard Fromberg by 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 today.
(Note: Stefan went on to defeat Michael Chang, but then
lost to Marc Rosset in the subsequent round. His win over
Michael Chang received rousing support from the French crowd.
)
SPORTS DESK
New York Times
An Unflinching Edberg Scores a Grand Upset
By ROBIN FINN
PARIS, June 1 -- He has never won a French Open championship, and if he doesn't win this year's, he never will.
But the 30-year-old Stefan Edberg, unseeded for his final campaign at the only Grand Slam event to elude him, took a never-say-never attitude into his match with Michael Chang today and turned a gloomy afternoon incandescent with his serve-and-volley artistry.
I played some of the best tennis I've done for a very, very long time," Edberg said after his 4-6, 7-5, 6-0, 7-6 (7-1) third-round victory.
"I'm not going out there giving him anything just because he's 30 and it's his last year," said the fourth-seeded Chang. "He is not the type that wants any free handouts. I lost a little bit of timing in the third set and from there the momentum definitely shifted."
By doing the little things right, said the 47th-ranked Edberg, he gave himself a little chance to retire from the game with all four Grand Slam trophies in his possession -- an honor no male player has achieved since Rod Laver and Roy Emerson in the 1960's.
"There's a tiny little chance," he said, "because I'm not feeling tired, I'm moving well, I'm serving a lot better than I've done for a long time. Little things that make a difference."
Edberg didn't cringe at the notion of squaring off against the very player who shut the window on him in the 1989 final here. Instead, he relished it. And today he got partial revenge for the loss that allowed Chang, at 17, to become the French Open's youngest male champion and forced the Swede, then 23, to wonder if he had blown his best chance to excel on his worst surface.
Now Edberg, who bumbled away a dozen break points in the fourth set of his 1989 final against Chang, has the chance to become the French Open's oldest champion since Andres Gomez in 1990.
"It does get tougher, but it's possible, there's a tiny little chance," said Edberg, who admitted he would rather have beaten Chang in their only other meeting on clay -- the 1989 final -- than today. With four rounds separating him from record-book immortality, Edberg said it will "take another four matches to make up for" what went wrong seven years ago.
One auspicious sign for Edberg, who prefers to deal in facts but didn't mind hearing about a positive portent, is that he has won all four Grand Slam matches he has played against Chang since 1989. More important, at Wimbledon in 1990, and at the United States Open in 1991 and 1992, Edberg went on to capture the championships.
If he does it here, he's certain to have ample support in the stands.
"You're popular when you're young, and then when you're old, the people start cheering for you again," said Edberg, who definitely had the sentiment and sympathy vote against Chang.