Rafter has the classic Australian force-the-tempo, serve-and-volley game. Chang is a baseline grinder, but his two previous matches, five-sets eachwith Marcelo Rios and Cedric Pioline, clearly extracted a price.
His five matches consumed 12 hours and 52 minutes -- more than 3 1/2 hours more than Rafter's. Five times, Chang has won back-to-back five-set matches. He is 1-4 in the subsequent match.
The first question Chang fielded : Was he tired?
``No. No. Physically I was OK out there,'' Chang said.
How did he feel mentally?
``Mentally, I think I was OK,'' he said. ``I felt pretty good out there.''
His weary voice and manner, however, betrayed those words.
Looking sluggish, Chang was broken in the first game. He committed three unforced errors, the last a deep forehand that sent Rafter off to a tidy 6-3 set that featured another break.
Rafter, beating a path to the net, broke Chang in the third game of the second set, punctuated with a cross-court forehand winner past an outstretched Chang at net. That led to another 6-3 result.
Chang opened the third set with his two best shots of the day -- an impossible running backhand winner and a savagely elegant running overhead -- and the crowd of 21,340 started to get behind him.
In the second game, Rafter fell behind 15- 40, but an ace and an unreturnable serve saved two more break points. Eventually, Rafter broke Chang in the seventh game with more big serves and clean volleys and the match was over in a startling 2 hours and 2 minutes.
