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Chang, Korda Are Semi Tough

With the consistent, methodical rallies and sudden bursts of speed that have long been his trademark, Michael Chang advanced to the final of the Legg Mason Tennis Classic last night with a 6-2, 7-6 (7-4) victory over New Zealand’s Brett Steven.

Chang, the top seed, will meet second-seeded Petr Korda in today’s 4 p.m. final at William H.G. FitzGerald Tennis Center. Korda advanced by halting David Wheaton’s string of upsets, beating the qualifier, 6-2, 6-3, in the afternoon session.

Chang played his second strong match in a row after a sluggish opening to the tournament. In his first match against qualifier Luis Herrera of Mexico, Chang trailed 5-2 and faced double match point in the third set before rallying. He lost his first set to Michael Joyce in his next match but recovered then, too.

But Chang, the defending champion, dispensed of seventh-seeded Australian Scott Draper in straight sets in his quarterfinal match Friday. With last night’s straight-set victory, he’s won six consecutive sets.

"Things are starting to get a little bit better," Chang said. "Hopefully [today’s final] will be even better for me. In the beginning of the week, I definitely had some really tough matches. The match against Herrera, the match against Michael really pushed me a lot, maybe more than I would have liked. But I think it was good for me to be able to get through those matches and hit a lot of balls" in his first match on hard courts since April 14.

Trailing 4-1 in the second set, Chang held serve twice and got a break to pull even, 4-4. Steven had trouble finishing off Chang in the ninth game, winning after the third deuce. In the 11th game, Steven held serve at love to go up 6-5. Chang then held serve, winning on a 112-mph ace to force a tiebreaker.

There, Chang took a 3-0 lead before winning on a slam, 7-4.

"I didn’t really work out how to play him until the start of the second, when I started to attack his second serve a little bit more," said the 11th-seeded Steven, who hadn’t faced Chang since 1994.

"He is very, very difficult. He doesn’t serve that great in the context of the whole match, but he serves well when the points matter the most. Like in the tiebreaker he served well, he served well at 5-6, and he just moves you around so much."

Chang has been the featured player this week, playing all four of his matches at night. A crowd of 6,784 saw him last night, and a near-sellout is expected today. Far fewer people have seen Korda, who has played all of his matches in the afternoon.

"We’ve had a lot of tough matches," said Chang, who is 5-2 lifetime against Korda. "Petr is a shot-maker. If you ask anybody on the pro tour, they’ll tell you he’s a shot-maker. He’ll go for his shots, and if he has a day where he’s on, he’s very, very difficult to beat. He has the capability of beating the best guys in the world." Right now, Chang is ranked second in the world on the Association of Tennis Professionals rankings, and a win today would give him a tour-high five this year. Korda, ranked 21st, is seeking his first ATP win since January 1996 in Doha, Qatar.

One day after gamely surviving a three-set quarterfinal match in which he vomited into the corner flower pots, a refreshed Korda used a precision game to dispatch of a slow-footed Wheaton. Korda was not broken in either set, and wore down Wheaton with his baseline game and what Wheaton called "penetrating" ground strokes.

"I was much stronger—much, much stronger," said Korda, adding that he was better prepared yesterday than he had been on Friday. "I mean, I even had some emotion after I won."

After finishing off Germany’s Tommy Haas in 2 hours 9 minutes Friday, an exhausted Korda meekly raised his arms and trudged toward the exit, letting the trainer carry his bag. Yesterday, after a 1-hour 20-minute match, Korda hopped in the air and made a scissors motion with his legs. He hit a ball into the upper deck of the stadium and carried his own bag to the locker room.

For Wheaton, the loss brought an end to a run that saw him reach his first tour semifinals in two years. A qualifier who beat three seeded players before meeting Korda, Wheaton was making just his second appearance at an ATP event since missing eight months with a heel injury. He said he was happy with the progress he’s shown, and is hoping for a wild card into next month’s U.S. Open. But he also said he has plenty of room for improvement.

"Today was a real good test for me," Wheaton said. "I don’t feel that I passed the test too well. I was really hoping to put in a good performance today and at least play well. Obviously, I still have a long way to go." Said Korda: "I’m improving from match to match and hopefully I’m going to be able to raise my game" for the final.

Today will be Korda’s third Washington final. He lost to Andre Agassi in 1991 and beat Sweden’s Henrik Holm in 1992.

"I think Korda’s the only guy, really, who can hit [Chang] off the court in this tournament, of the players who are here," Steven said. "He’s a fantastic stroke-maker when he’s on his game. But if he’s a little bit off, he can be way off, too."