| | Associated Press
LOS ANGELES -- It took Michael Chang exactly 90 minutes to defeat Australian Paul Kilderry 6-4, 6-2 Tuesday night in a first-round match at the Mercedes-Benz Cup tennis tournament.
The fourth-seeded Chang used an all-court steady game to move
into the second at the Los Angeles Tennis Center. The 28-year-old
from Henderson, Nev., the winner here in l996, dominated the
contest from the start, winning the first three games of both sets
and was only broken once.
In last year's tournament, Chang suffered a first-round loss to another Australian, James Sekulov.
"I think last year I was definitely struggling," Chang said. "I give 100 percent or I don't give at all.
"I've played Paul before, so tonight I had to have a strategy
and that was to play consistent, play aggressive. There were some
tense moments, but I felt pretty good out there."
In other first-round matches Tuesday, "lucky loser" Lionel
Roux of France, who replaced the injured Andre Agassi in the draw,
beat Taylor Dent 6-4, 1-6, 6-3; South Africa's Neville Godwin beat
Australia's Scott Draper 4-6, 6-7 (6), 7-6; Australia's Jason
Stoltenberg downed Bob Bryan 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, and Thailand's
Srichaphan Paradorn topped Canada's Sebastien Lareau 6-4, 6-4.
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ALSO SEE
Tuesday's results
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