Tennis: Chang match ends in surprise twist

By TERRY MADDAFORD


Michael Chang is through to the semifinals of the Auckland international tennis tournament after a dramatic end to last night's quarter-final against Swede Magnus Gustafsson.

After taking the first set 7-5, Chang dropped the second 3-6 as Gustafsson broke the American twice. The end of the second set was greeted by an untimely 59-minute rain delay - frustrating both players and the sellout crowd.

After a brief warm-up on their return, Gustafsson, the oldest player in the Heineken Open, served. He fought back from 0-30 to deuce, then had and lost the advantage. At game point Chang played a winner but could only watch in amazement as Gustafsson slumped to the court, appearing to twist his knee. He promptly retired.

"You never want to win matches this way," said Chang, who himself had treatment on a sore knee during the break. "You just want to see Magnus back out there again soon."

Second seed Magnus Norman, who plays Gaston Gaudio in the first semifinal today, is the only seed left in the tournament.

Juan Balcells set the tone for quarter-finals day with another stellar effort in knocking out seventh seed Juan Carlos Ferrero in an all-Spanish opener.

Twenty-four hours after sending top seed Tommy Haas on his way, Balcells, the only qualifier still in the tournament, dropped his opening serve to love but bounced back to break Ferrero in the next.

A dropped service game cost Balcells the set 4-6.

But he is a fighter. He broke Ferrero in the second game of the second set and eventually served it out at 6-3.

Balcells, ranked only 22nd in Spain (Ferrero is at five) sensed victory.

He broke Ferrero in the first, third and seventh games of the third set to coast home 6-1 in 25 minutes.

"I was too tired to enjoy it at the beginning," said Balcells, who plays Chang today, "but I started to feel better in the second when I broke him. I started to feel more confident."

Defending champion Sjeng Schalken was despatched by unseeded Gaston Gaudio in just 61 minutes.

Gaudio broke Schalken twice in each set to coast through, like Blacells, to his first ATP semifinal.

"Everything went wrong," said Schalken.

"It would have been good to play myself the way I played out there today. He just played the ball back. I made the errors. I expected to win but I was too impatient."

As a parting shot, Schalken said: "See you next year. I would love to come back."

Norman has not dropped a set, barely raised a sweat and been most impressive.

The Swedish No 2 needed just 65 minutes to see off eighth seed Marc Rosset, winning 58 per cent of the 110 points and breaking the tempestuous Rosset twice in each set in his 6-2 6-2 romp.

"It is difficult to play Marc," said Norman. "Sometimes you think he is out of his mind when he talks to the crowd and smashes his racket. I knew I had a good chance if I played as well as I did yesterday. In the second set it was pretty easy. He wanted to get out of here."

Today's draw (from noon).- Singles semifinals: Gaudio v Norman followed by Balcells v Chang followed by doubles semifinal Pala/Vizner v Shortall/Testa or Delaitre/Tarango.