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For at least one day, Carl Chang was the hero of Andre Agassi's coach, Brad Gilbert. Chang, who coaches his brother, Michael, found Gilbert's cellular phone and money clip yesterday near one of the William H.G. FitzGerald Tennis Center's outer courts. "Carl saved the day," Gilbert said. "I've never been so happy to hear Carl Chang's voice in my life."

Before Agassi played South Africa's Wayne Ferreira in a Legg Mason Tennis Classic semifinal, Gilbert helped Agassi warm up, then both returned to the locker room. Ten minutes prior to the match, Gilbert realized he didn't have his cellular phone and money clip, which held four credit cards, several hundred dollars in cash and his driver's license. Gilbert ran back to the outer court, but neither his money clip — given to him as a 30th birthday gift by his wife — nor his phone were there.

Gilbert did not recover his possessions until after the match, which couldn't have finished any quicker for him, or with better results. Agassi defeated Ferreira in 43 minutes, 6-1, 6-0. "I'm stressing during the entire match," Gilbert said. "I was thinking about canceling all my credit cards."

Gilbert and Agassi will have even less stress because Michael Chang, citing an injured left wrist, withdrew from the tournament last evening prior to his semifinal match against Scott Draper.

A Champion's Game
Caroline Fearing Ritter of Allentown, Pa., is the two-time defending champion of the Nation's Capital Wheelchair Tennis Tournament, which also is being played at the William H.G. FitzGerald Tennis Center. She'll defend her title today.

Fearing Ritter, 37, has been playing tennis in a wheelchair for 3½ years and is quick to remind people that she is a professional tennis player. In addition to being a top-rated tennis player, she also plays basketball and skis.

"If it wasn't for these sports, I wouldn't know where to go and what to do," Fearing Ritter said. "If you don't do something like this, you sit at home and get depressed."

In the men's draw of the wheelchair event, Todd Cox of Fairfax will play Eric Converse of Falls Church, who happens to be his friend and doubles partner. Cox and Converse have been playing together for about three years and met in the final last year, when Cox won. He doesn't intend to relinquish his title to Converse.

"I'll win again," Cox joked.

Cox, 33, began playing tennis shortly after he suffered a serious injury in a car accident. He credits tennis for giving him an outlet, socially and athletically. "It's therapeutic," Cox said. "It's very competitive . . . and the thing about tennis is it's a lot more individual than a lot of sports. Tennis is also more social."

Too Close to Watch
After twins Bob and Mike Bryan won a lower-level doubles tournament in Aptos, Calif., last week, their mother Kathy returned home to Camarillo, Calif., instead of coming to Washington to watch her sons make their ATP Tour debuts in the Legg Mason Tennis Classic.

However, according to her husband, Wayne, she might not have watched her sons play even if she had come to Washington, where the twins have advanced to last night's doubles semifinals. Last year, Bob and Mike Bryan played in the Legg Mason as amateurs, but Kathy was too nervous to watch them play in person, according to Wayne Bryan, who said she watched on a big screen television in the player's lounge.

© Copyright 1998 The Washington Post Company

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