TENNIS - CHANG , WASHINGTON ADVANCE , TWO WOMEN 'S SEEDS FALL .
Larry Fine
NEW YORK 1996-08-26
Michael Chang is playing in his 10th U.S. Open and enjoying his highest seeding ever , but the 24-year-old American had to overcome a case of the jitters Monday before winning his first-round match on opening day .
Chang , seeded second behind defending champion Pete Sampras , took two hours 40 minutes to defeat 186th-ranked Jaime Oncins of Brazil 3-6 6-1 6-0 7-6 , 8-6 in the tiebreaker .
" I was pretty tight the whole match , " conceded Chang , one of the hottest players on tour this summer with a 16-2 record on hardcourts that included two titles and a runner-up finish .
" Everyone has moments when they get tight .
Hopefully , this will have been my nerves for the whole tournament . "
Joining Chang into the second round was Wimbledon runner-up MaliVai Washington , the 11th seed , who also needed four sets to get past talented Moroccan Karim Alami 6-4 2-6 7-6 ( 7-5 ) 6-1 .
Washington 's win was not comfortable , either .
The 27-year-old American hurried off the Stadium Court for treatment of an upset stomach after his two and a half hour struggle against Alami .
" Towards the end of my match my stomach felt like week-old sushi , " said Washington . "
Maybe it was a combination of the heat and something I ate . "
Chang and Washington were the only men 's seeds in action on a day that saw two seeded women 's players fall .
Australian Open runner-up Anke Huber of Germany , the sixth seed , was undone by an unlucky draw that put her against 17th ranked South African Amanda Coetzer in her opening match .
Coetzer claimed revenge for the semifinal defeat she suffered to Huber in Melbourne by taking a 6-1 2-6 6-2 victory .
Last year 's Wimbledon junior champion , Aleksandra Olsza of Poland , removed another seed from the draw by eliminating number 12 Magdalena Maleeva of Bulgaria 6-4 6-2 .
Other men 's winners included a pair of former Grand Slam tournament champions whose victories set up a showdown in the second round .
Germany 's Michael Stich , the 1991 Wimbledon champion , and two-time French Open winner Sergi Bruguera of Spain will face each other next after beating German Tommy Haas 6-3 1-6 6-1 7-5 , and Belgian Kris Goossens 6-2 6-0 7-6 ( 7-1 ) , respectively .
Alex O'Brien , who scored his first professional title eight days ago in New Haven , advanced to the second round with a 6-4 1-6 6-4 6-3 win over Ecuador 's Nicolas Lapentti .
Wimbledon bad boy Jeff Tarango caught a break Monday when he advanced after the retirement of German Alex Radulescu due to heat exhaustion .
Tarango was leading 6-7 ( 5-7 ) 6-4 6-1 3-1 .
Chang blamed breezy conditions for some of the erratic play in his match with Oncins , who had beaten him in the round of 32 at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics .
Chang committed an untidy 53 unforced errors , though he made seven fewer than the Brazilian , who also walloped a woeful 24 double faults .
The most deflating double fault came when Oncins was serving to force a fifth set , leading 6-4 in the tiebreaker .
The set point came after confusion at the net on the point previous , which was awarded to Oncins after the two exchanged shots at close quarters at the net .
First Chang approached the umpire , then Oncins , then Chang again before play finally resumed .
" Those little seconds were like an hour to me , " said Oncins , who promptly fired two serves barely contained by the baseline as he frittered away his best chance .
Chang ran off the next three points to close out the match but for Oncins , the contest was a personal victory .
The 26-year-old Brazilian had risen into the top 30 in 1992 .
The next year a close friend was struck by a stray bullet while riding home in a car from a soccer game in Sao Paulo .
He died slumped against Oncins , who subsequently lost interest in tennis .
" Two months ago I started talking about quitting , " said Oncins , who decided to give it one last try and made it through the Open qualifying tournament last weekend .
" I believe in my game again , " he said .
At the end of the day , a spate of withdrawals from the tournament were announced .
Eighth seed Jim Courier withdrew because of a bruised right knee , and 1988 Open champion Mats Wilander bowed out due to a groin pull , organisers said .
Women 's ninth seed Mary Joe Fernandez pulled out because of tendinitis in her right wrist .