`Shanghai Kid’ sizzles at home

The 28-year-old will await an opponent from an all-Swedish clash between top seed Magnus Norman and Number eight Jonas Bjorkman.

Norman beat Chang in the semi-finals here a year ago before going on to win the title over Marcelo Rios of Chile.

Chang was untroubled in his first meeting with the South American. The Chinese-American owns 34 career titles a dozen of them won in Asia.

Fans with umbrellas at the ready at the Xian Xia tennis centre cheered the Asian-American’s every winner as Massu found himself facing long odds from the start.

Chang, seeded third, has had a modest year, winning only one title at Los Angeles in July. He also reached the finals in Auckland in January and semi-finals in Atlanta, Germany, and Holland. The 1989 French Open champion remains a hero to millions the land of his ancestors, and said this week he would be aiming to open a chain of tennis centres in the country when he finally retires.

But his focus during this rainy week is on the job at hand. “I know that it won’t be easy, there is a strong field here,” he said, adding, “I’m in better shape than I have been for quite some time.”

Lindsay Davenport wins
LINZ (Austria): Top seed Lindsay Davenport easily ousted Amanda Hopmans of The Netherlands in the $ 535,000 Generali Ladies Open, but sixth-seeded Amelie Mauresmo played sluggish game, losing in three sets to Kveta Hrdlickova.

Nathalie Tauziat, seeded fourth, had no trouble winning 6-2 in the first set against Karina Habsudova, but the Czech player kept the Frenchwoman on the run in the second set. Tauziat exploited the corners to win that set 7-5.

Davenport was relaxed and showed no signs of discomfort from the sore foot that sidelined her for three weeks after she withdrew from the Sydney Olympics. With an ace here and there, successful shots at the net and her trademark deep, pounding ground strokes, she defeated Hopmans 6-1, 6-1 in just 48 minutes.

Davenport is heavily favoured for an eventual matchup inthe finals against second seed Venus Williams, who advanced in play on Wednesday by defeating Japan’s Ai Sugiyama.

Only one Frenchman remains in Toulose
TOULOUSE: By the fourth day of the $ 400,000 Toulouse Tennis Open, Nicolas Escude was the only French player to qualify for the quarterfinals.

Escude, ranked 37th by the ATP, will pay Belarusian MaxMirnyi, ranked 43rd. Mirnyi easily beat Andreas Vinciguerra of Sweden by a score of 6-3, 6-0.French hopeful Julien Boutter was forced out in two sets 7-6 (7/3), 6-4 by Swede Mikael Tillstrom.