Quick Exit for Chang

For Michael Chang, the twilight is amazingly similar to the dawn of his career. He wasn’t expected to win many matches at the start, and now, about a decade and a half later, it’s almost the same way.

He has watched the losses accumulate--11 first-round exits in 2002. He has heard the word in the locker room, that his colleagues no longer fear him and his 30-year-old legs on the court. And he has seen the faces in the media room as the questions sound more skeptical each month.

Chang even had to chuckle about the last development, and he came tantalizingly close to using a colorful description after his three-set loss to Jan-Michael Gambill on Monday in the first round of the Mercedes-Benz Cup at UCLA.

Being Chang, he didn’t and trailed off.

“You guys must think I’m one really stubborn ... “ he said, laughing. “I still have a lot of hope.”

Who knows what he would have said? But Chang, ranked 106th, was in a deeply reflective mood after 53rd-ranked Gambill defeated him, 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7), in 2 hours 20 minutes. Gambill led, 3-0, in the third set before Chang fought back in characteristic fashion. In the tiebreaker, Chang fought off two match points before Gambill won it on the third, serving and volleying.

The highest seeded player in action, No. 4 Andy Roddick, also needed to go three sets. Roddick served 20 aces in his 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-2 victory against Hyung-Taik Lee of South Korea. It was Roddick’s first tournament action since losing in the third round at Wimbledon.

“It feels good to feel like you’re in the tournament,” said Roddick, who improved to 5-0 against Lee. “I was in the trenches today. I had a tough match. I like starting off the tournament like that.”

The longest singles match of the day was between Chang and Gambill, a rematch of the 2000 final here, which Chang won after Gambill retired because of injuries. It was the last tournament title for Chang, but it should be noted he has won a title more recently than Pete Sampras, whose last championship was at Wimbledon in 2000.

Gambill, who has had struggles of his own this last year, compared Chang to Sampras. He still spoke highly of Chang, calling him “a great player,” but stated the obvious after what has been a long and prolonged slide.

“It’s part of the same thing you see with Pete Sampras,” Gambill said. “The one thing both of those guys had over a lot of guys was the fear factor. The fear factor is gone. Nobody has the fear factor of Michael Chang anymore. Obviously, Sampras’ is subdued a little bit. That’s one thing.

“When you play a guy you have a fear factor of, you think it’s so hard to win games. You might already lose the first game for no reason because you think they’re so good.”

Chang bristled a bit when first told of Gambill’s comment. He understood when it was put into context later on.

“I feel the pressure is off for me,” he said. “Playing these events, players say, ‘Well, we don’t need to be afraid of Chang.’ Then again, nobody wants to lose to me either. Realistically, I think people know it’s a tough road for me. They don’t want to lose to me. It’s gone back to the time when I was very young. Nobody wants to lose to a 15-, 16-, 17-year-old. Nobody wants to really lose to somebody who’s in the twilight of his career.”

Chang spoke about breaking down in tears after losing to a qualifier, James Sekulov of Australia, in 1999 at UCLA in the quarterfinals. After that match, he spoke about quitting to his father, Joe, and his coach and brother Carl. But he’s still around.

Of late, Chang said he and his brother have even discussed making a coaching change but nothing has come to fruition.

“It’s something I’ve talked about with Carl,” Chang said. “We thought about different possibilities. Carl has a tremendous love for me. When it comes to tennis, he’s really able to put aside his pride, ‘Look, Michael if there’s somebody else out there that can help you to do better. I think we need to look at it.’ ”

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Another well-known tennis family observed a family milestone on Monday. Cousins Prakash Amritraj and Stephen Amritraj won their first ATP doubles match, beating George Bastl of Switzerland and Sandon Stolle of Australia, 4-6, 7-6 (3), 6-2. Their proud fathers, brothers Anand and Vijay were on hand and beaming afterward and thought it was cosmic fate considering they won this tournament in 1975.

Prakash just finished his freshman year at USC, helping lead the Trojans to the NCAA team title. Monday morning, he called Coach Dick Leach, who retired after this season, to tell him they were playing a former Trojan player, Bastl and Stolle.

“He started laughing at me, he said, ‘Good luck,’ ” Prakash said. “So I’m going to call him and tell him we won. He better be sitting down. He might have a heart attack.”