Columnist Dean Juipe: Big chance slips away from Chang

Dean Juipe

Wednesday, June 4, 1997 | 10:33 a.m.

A MAN WITH $14.5 million in career earnings plus endorsement contracts with Reebok, Prince, Procter & Gamble, Tigerbalm and Compak can't have too many worrisome concerns. From Michael Chang's perspective, life has to be good.

But it could also be better.

For instance, he could still be playing in the French Open. Or he could have won last year's U.S. Open after reaching the final with Pete Sampras. Or he could have won last year's Australian Open after reaching the final with Boris Becker.

Or he could have won any Grand Slam event this decade and laid to rest the demons that have trailed him since 1989, when he won the French Open at 17 years old.

Eight years later, Chang is ranked No. 2 in the world, has five 1997 victories and had three in '96. Yet without a follow-up victory this decade in one of the four annual majors, he has to be haunted by something of a hollow feeling.

Worse, as he makes his way back to his Henderson home from Paris, he knows better than anyone that the French Open was his for the taking.

Until he was eliminated this week by Spain's Sergi Bruguera, Chang could have reasonably looked at how the French Open draw was unfolding -- 12 of the 16 seeds were early round losers -- and pictured a carbon copy of 1989. That year, Chang -- a wild card aided by the failures of the top seeds -- charged to an unexpected victory that included a win over Paul McNamee in the final.

At 17 years, 3 months, he was the youngest male winner of a Grand Slam event.

Things haven't been the same since, although Chang was in position to rectify any and all negatives in Paris. As it is, all of the top seeds are out -- including defending champion Yevgeny Kafelnikov, who lost Tuesday -- and every American has been eliminated.

For the first time since 1977, a qualifier will play in a Grand Slam final.

Chang has to be thinking he may never see a better chance than the one that just slipped away.

"The match was mine for the taking," he said after losing 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 to Bruguera, although he could have just as easily been talking about the tournament as a whole. He isn't apt to take any consolation in the fact he was just one of many high-profile players to be beaten on Roland Garros' beautiful red clay.

Chang came to Paris with a mixed bag of emotions. He was leading the ATF in wins yet coming off first-round losses at both Orlando and Rome; his successes were offset by the need to further bolster his game, which led to changing rackets to one with an extended handle; and close observers said they detected a slight loss in his foot speed, yet TV commentator John McEnroe referred to Chang as "the quickest guy on the circuit" during an early-round French win.

Then, just as the brackets looked perfect for Chang's exploitation, he commits 65 unforced errors and connects on only 41 percent of his first serves in losing to Bruguera.

The result: Another painful setback for a one-time phenom in the midst of a golden, albeit unfulfilled, career.