Jonas Bjorkman outlasted Michael Chang 7-5, 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 today to give Sweden a 1-0 lead over the United States in their Davis Cup final.
In the second singles, Pete Sampras played Magnus Larsson.Carried by the home crowd and playing some solid tennis, Bjorkman broke Chang's serve three times in the final set and converted his second match point to win in two hours, 56 minutes.
"It's incredible," Bjorkman said. "It makes all the training worthwhile."
The first set lasted one hour and 10 minutes, longer than some two-set matches. In a match of two good returners, all but three games went to one or more deuces.
There were some spectacular rallies and extraordinary points, such as when an air-borne Chang hit a winner off a wrong foot.
The sell-out crowd of 11,000 in the Scandinavium hall was noisily partisan.
Chang dropped his serve to trail 6-5, in a game that included a doublefault perhaps caused by one of the paper planes occasionally hurled onto the court from the crowd.
Bjorkman used his chance and served out the long set.
But the American recovered quickly to break serve for a 2-0 lead and rolled through the second set in just 26 minutes.
There were two breaks of serve each early in the third set and Bjorkman gained another for a decisive 5-3 lead when Chang hit a forehand wide.
The Swede served out the set without problems, hitting two service winners in a row.
Bjorkman kept up the momentum and broke again at the start of the fourth. His lead last only until the next game.
But Chang dropped his serve again to give Bjork-man a 4-3 lead.
Serving to stay in the match, Chang had a doublefault that made it 30-30. A volley by Bjorkman gave the Swede his first match point, but he wasted it by hitting a forehand long. A forehand winner set up another and Chang dropped the match when he hit a volley into the net.
The doubles are slated for Saturday and reverse singles are on Sunday.
The Americans have bleak memories of Goteborg, the city on Sweden's western coast where they lost a semifinal match in 1994 and a final in 1984, their only two defeats to Sweden against seven wins.
The United States is by far the most successful nation in the most prestigious tennis team competition, making its 59th appearance in he final.
The Americans have won the coveted title a record 31 times. Australia is next best, with 26 victories.
The last time the Americans won the title was in 1995.
Sweden, runner-up to France last year, is in its 11th Davis Cup final and has won the title five times, the last coming in 1994.
If the United States team is going recapture the Davis Cup, it will have to reverse several trends.
One is that the Americans tend to lose to Sweden when the match is in this city on the western Swedish coast.
Chang lost to Bjorkman in straight sets at the TP Tour World Championship earlier this month in Hanover, Germany.
Magnus Larsson is the only player on the tour to beat Sampras twice this year.
For the fifth straight time, Sampras will finish the year ranked No. 1 in the world.