Chang bundles out Paes

SINGAPORE, OCT 13: Wild card Leander Paes struggled with his first serves to bow to fleet-footed American Michael Chang in the 1st round ...

SINGAPORE, OCT 13: Wild card Leander Paes struggled with his first serves to bow to fleet-footed American Michael Chang in the 1st round of the $725,000 Singapore Open here.

Paes was totally at loss in the first set where he was broken twice — once dropping his serve at love — before losing to the former French Open champion 1-6, 3-6 in just a shade over an hour.

The unseeded Chang raced to a commanding 5-0 lead in the first set before Paes, down 0-30 in the sixth game, charged at the net and made the American run around the court to set up first game point for himself. Paes fired an ace to win his first and only game of the set.

Paes put up a fight in the second set by adopting an aggressive approach. But the 27-year-old Chang, with a 21-18 win loss record this year and without any title to his name, looked in devastating form that made him one of the youngest Grand Slam champions. He held serve in the second game and then broke Paes in the next to be in command.

Paes’ best effort to tackle Changcame in the sixth game of the second set which went to deuce. Chang earned an advantage soon with a big serve and then won his game with a backhand volley.

In the seventh game, Paes, after being 40-0 on serve, gave away two easy points. Seeing an opening, Chang whipped a forehand curling down-the-line return that was too much for Paes to handle. Paes, however, won two successive points to hold his service.

Chang won the next one and faced with a situation of serving to save the match, Paes did not take any unnecessary risks as his real campaign lay in the doubles, where he and Mahesh Bhupathi are the top seeds.

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Norman out: Two days after winning the Shanghai Open, Swede Magnus Norman found himself out of the Singapore Heineken Open today, a 3-6, 6-1, 3-6 upset victim of fighting Thai spoiler Paradorn Srichaphan — ranked No 156 in the world.

The 19th-ranked Norman was playing his opening match in Singapore just 48 hours after defeating Marcelo Rios in a rain-delayed final Monday inChina.

Results (first round): Todd Woodbridge (Aust) bt 5-Sjeng Schalken (Holland) 4-6, 7-5, 6-3, Daniel Nestor (Canada) bt Cecil Mamiit (US) 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, Kenneth Carlsen (Denmark) bt Sebastien Lareau (US), Anthony Depuis (France) bt Mark Woodforde (Aust) 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-2)