By Moin Salahuddin
Daily Bruin Staff
With his quiet demeanor and baseline tennis game, American
Michael Chang doesn’t seem to be much of an intimidating
presence on or off the court.
But don’t tell that to South African Wayne Ferreira, who
had a chance Friday afternoon to finally beat the man he
couldn’t beat in six other meetings.
“The times when I’ve played him, he’s always
been at his best,” Ferreira said. “He’s always
tough. He never gives up.”
And tough Chang was in the quarterfinals of the Mercedes-Benz
Cup at the Los Angeles Tennis Center.
Chang dismantled Ferreira in the first set and went on to win a
captivating tiebreaker in the second, 6-3, 7-6 (9-7) to advance to
his third semifinal in four Los Angeles tournaments.
“I’ve had some tough matches with Wayne, especially
today,” said Chang, who is now 7-0 against Ferreira. “I
was just trying to claw my way back.”
Ferreira was the one attempting to get back in the first set
after he lost 13 straight points to let Chang grab a 4-1 lead. The
5-foot-9 American went on to win the final game at love, closing
the set out with a 109 mph ace.
“It was frustrating,” said Ferreira, who has not won
a tournament in two years. “I had a lot of
chances.”
His chances improved early in the second set as he broke
Chang’s serve to go up 2-0.
But the match got back on serve as Chang kept attacking with
deep forehand shots that sent Ferreira running back and forth.
“Chang gets a lot of balls back,” Ferreira said.
“If I’d served better, I would have won. I’ve got
to get through my service games easy so I can focus on
his.”
Momentum did swing Ferreira’s way over the next couple of
games as he won nine consecutive points to take a 5-4 lead.
Chang answered and pushed Ferreira to the tiebreaker, who
started that off with a forehand winner to go up 1-0.
Several unforced errors later, Ferreira found himself up 5-3,
only two points from pushing the match to a third set.
“It was a tough tiebreaker,” Chang said. “I
just had to hang tough.”
But once again, Ferreira appeared frustrated as he sent one easy
forehand shot into the net and another clipped the top of the net
and spun out of play to even it up at 5-5.
A mis-hit backhand by Chang left Ferreira with a set point, but
he failed to capitalize on it, hitting another crucial forehand
into the net.
“Every point was crucial,” Chang said. “I knew
that somehow I had to get him out of his groove.”
A 102 mph ace by the South African brought another set point but
Chang quickly answered with one of his own into the corner, this
time clocked at 112 mph.
With a pump of his fists, Chang knew he had Ferreira right where
he wanted him. The match finished with Ferreira hitting two
forehands long.
“Nothing went wrong,” Ferreira said. “I played
good tennis but I just didn’t win the match today.”
With his victory, Chang will face former Bruin All-American
Justin Gimelstob in the semifinals. Chang has never before played
Gimelstob.
“Justin’s not an easy player to play against,”
Chang said. “It’s going to be important for me to come
out and play some good tennis if I want to get to the
finals.”