Something’s Ironic About Roddick’s Victory

PARIS â€”  They staged a faithful re-creation of a nearly 12-year-old event at the French Open on Wednesday. Andy Roddick played the role of teenage Michael Chang, and Chang took the part of veteran Ivan Lendl.

Roddick had it down cold. After all, he had watched the epic Chang-Lendl match at Roland Garros in 1989 when he was 6. He was so inspired he went out and practiced for two hours.

He knew Chang won in five sets late in the day despite severe cramping. Roddick watched Chang stun the legend with an underhanded serve. That day forever cemented Chang’s reputation for courage and inspiration.

This day will do the same for Roddick. The 18-year-old had cramps surging through his body like electrical shocks the final two sets, nearly fell to the ground on several occasions and still managed to hit 37 aces, defeating the 29-year-old Chang, 5-7, 6-3, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 7-5, in the second round in 3 hours 50 minutes.

When Chang’s final backhand sailed over Roddick’s head and went wide--a shot seeming to last eons--Roddick looked amazed. His mouth was wide open in shock and he looked close to crying. Roddick leaned over and collected himself for a few moments.

He shared a warm handshake and chat with Chang at the net, and the celebration started on Center Court. Roddick tossed his hat in the stands and ripped his shirt, a la Andrew Ilie, about two-thirds of the way. Roddick’s jubilant coach, Frenchman Tarik Benhabiles, did the same in the stands, ripping his own shirt, saying he needed some release after the drama.

“Relief, joy. You can’t even explain moments like that,� Roddick said. “I mean, I almost wanted to cry. But I wanted to scream and yell at the same time. That’s what I play tennis for.

“You don’t play tennis for three and a half hours to lay down and die when it gets tough. You say, ‘Give it your all until the last ball is over.’ �

That sounds a lot like Chang too. But role reversal went only so far. Roddick didn’t pull out any underhanded serves.

“The only thing keeping me in it in the fifth set was my serve,� Roddick said. “I don’t know how I was hitting it. You know, my underhanded serve is suspect--not one of my biggest weapons--so I stuck with the overhand.�

Chang--who beat Lendl in the fourth round and went on to win the title at age 17 in a journey of destiny--said of Roddick: “He showed me he’s got a big serve, I can tell you that. I don’t know how many times I got aced today. I had a lot of chances. On the opportunities that I had, he came out with big serves. Even when he was cramping, he was able to bomb the serve.�

Roddick’s 37 aces were the most at the French Open since the men’s tour started keeping records in 1991. Tellingly, 20 of the 37 came in the final two sets, 10 in each, when Roddick was ravaged by the cramps.

The cramps started torturing his body in the fourth set. They came and went. Chang thought that they weren’t as big a problem when Roddick was returning serve. Once he jokingly leaned on a linesman for support. He staggered and twisted so much it looked as if he could have been in that old Monty Python skit, “Ministry of Silly Walks.� More dangerously, there were some similarities to the way marathoner Gabriela Andersen looked at the 1984 Olympics.

“It was my hand doing this cool little bendy-thingy,� Roddick said, waving his hand. “My calves were going. When I served when I came down, I was cramping in [the groin].�

What really hurt was he came within two points of ending it in the fourth set. In the tiebreaker, Roddick led, 5-4, and lost the final three points, double faulting and hitting a forehand long and watching Chang whip a winner on set point.

“That [stunk],� said Roddick, who had two aces in the tiebreaker. “I had a bad toss on the 5-4 point. Then I don’t know what I did on the forehand. That was pretty intelligent.�

It was painful to watch Roddick in the fifth. His coach kept motioning him to get treatment, but Roddick ignored him, thinking if he stopped, the cramps would get worse. He thought of the Chang-Lendl match during the ordeal.

“It definitely crossed my mind,� he said. “That was one of the first tennis matches I watched. I remember it to this day. I was thinking, ‘Yeah, this is pretty ironic.’ Here I am cramping up just trying to fight and claw.

“That’s how I kind of got first interested in tennis. It was kind of like a fairy tale or something.�

Roddick had a match point in the 10th game of the fifth set on Chang’s serve but netted a forehand. After that game, the crowd started chanting: “Andee, Andee.�

Nine minutes later, he had another shot at it and wrote the ending to his own fairy tale, forcing Chang’s final wide backhand with a penetrating forehand. This is his 12th consecutive victory--all on clay--and he will play 20-year-old Lleyton Hewitt of Australia in the third round. Chang shook Roddick’s hand and told him how to handle the cramps. Chang has certainly has been there.

“He showed everyone he’s not here by coincidence,� said Benhabiles, who added, laughing, that Roddick didn’t follow the plan they designed until the final game. “I always knew he had heart.�

Said Roddick: “I was just hoping I could hold out long enough before I would be on my back, rolling over or something.�

That’s what Chang did against Lendl. Imitation, it seemed, only went so far.

On the women’s side, No. 12 Kim Clijsters of Belgium, No. 14 Justine Henin of Belgium and No. 15 Jelena Dokic of Yugoslavia all won in straight sets. One seeded player lost as Henrieta Nagyova of Slovakia defeated No. 7 Elena Dementieva of Russia, 7-5, 7-5.

Former champion Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia, seeded seventh, had trouble against lucky loser Cecil Mamiit of Los Angeles before winning, 7-6 (3), 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (2).

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

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