Chang Bids For Second French Title

Michael Chang did it by putting mind over the possibly daunting matter of trying to dethrone the French Open’s two-time defending champion.

Thomas Muster, the great grunter and growler, did it by making his opponent feel like a pipsqueak caught in the sights and soundtrack of a howitzer.

After both prevailed in straight sets in Friday’s semifinal round, the bragging rights to the 1995 French Open now belong to Chang or Muster, two players who took a very different track toward earning their clay-court credentials. While Chang was busy overcoming cramps and stage fright here in 1989 as he became the youngest Grand Slam male champion at 17, Muster was on crutches with his future very much in jeopardy after being struck in the knee by a drunk driver.

This Grand Slam final will be a first for Muster, for whom a French title may be the light at the end of a 12-month tunnel of arduous rehabilitation beginning in March 1989, and the second for Chang, who has spent the last six years trying to repeat the process.

Under the usual ceiling of cloud cover and sun spots that has passed for summer weather over the last few weeks at Roland Garros, Chang won, 6-4, 7-6(7-5), 7-6(7-0), against a decidedly listless version of Sergi Bruguera, the French Open’s undisputed maestro in 1993 and 1994.

The loss ended Bruguera’s 19-match unbeaten streak at Roland Garros and brought the sixth-seeded Chang back into the limelight of a Grand Slam finale.

Meanwhile, the fifth-seeded Muster improved his stretch of clay-court invulnerability to 34 consecutive matches with a 6-4, 6-0, 6-4 dismissal of the ninth-seeded Yevgeny Kafelnikov, the 21-year-old Russian who knocked Andre Agassi, top-seeded but sore-hipped, out of the running. Although Friday’s match was a classic rout, with Muster slugging away like a heavyweight who has selected a flyweight as a sparring partner, his gargantuan groans and grunts made the victory sound harder to achieve than it really was.

Kafelnikov had, after all, conceded this match before he had even scuffed out onto center court. The Austrian not only played Kafelnikov off the court, he scared him off it.

“You’re facing like something from the ‘Rocky’ movie; when you go to the small, little ring to play against him, you feel like a small moth against a big elephant,” said Kafelnikov, who admitted to having a mental block when it came time to go to work Friday. “There’s something already in the mind, that Thomas is like a wall, he’s unbeatable.”

Playing like a man possessed - although he vehemently denies being as obsessed with this title as he was when he reached the semifinals in 1990 - Muster made just 18 unforced errors, saved both break points he allotted the underdog, unloaded no double faults and converted five of seven break chances.

“It would be great to win the Slam, but it’s not going to change my life,” said Muster, who now seems to be playing down his proximity to the title he most craves.

“It’s not emotional at all; it’s just another one to go, I guess, for me, and it doesn’t matter winning or losing,” he said about the prospect of facing Chang, a player he has defeated all three times they have met and who recently turned up in the Italian Open quarterfinals as victim No. 26 of Muster’s awesome clay-court winning streak.

Muster’s 28th victim happened to be Bruguera, who fell to Muster in the Rome final, and Friday the 24-yearold Spaniard predicted that Chang will be Muster’s 35th victim on Sunday: “He hits much more harder than Michael, he wins much more points,” Bruguera said. “He is better on clay and has better condition.”

Bruguera, who was sidelined by a sprained knee from February until April and came into this event feeling less than able to cope with its five-set format, said he lacked sufficient fitness and resistance to outlast Chang. “I was tired, and when you are tired you don’t think well enough,” said Bruguera.

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: French Open Winners: Fifth-seeded Thomas Muster defeated ninth-seeded Yevgeny Kafelnikov and extended his winning streak on clay to 34 matches. Sixth-seeded Michael Chang beat two-time defending champion Sergi Bruguera, seeded seventh, to advance to the finals. A look ahead: In the women’s final today, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario defends her crown against three-time champion Steffi Graf. (NBC, noon).