THE darling of the Hongkong fans, Michael Chang, made his doubles debut in the territory yesterday with brother Carl but, much to the disappointment of their many young fans, lost in three sets. The American-Chinese brothers showed indifferent form during the two-hour match against Briton Neil Broad and South Africa's Gary Muller on the Victoria Park centre court before losing 6-3, 3-6, 6-4. Carl, who has coached his top-10 sibling for the past two years, was playing for the first time before a Hongkong crowd and admitted he suffered early jitters. ''I don't play that many tournaments and I was a little bit nervous at the start, especially when everybody was shouting Michael, Michael,'' said Carl. The brothers started confidently enough by breaking Broad's service in the opening game but they lost the first set when Carl dropped his serve twice. Carl settled down in the second set and impressed with backhand cross court winners and powerful overheads as the brothers clinched the second set 6-3, with the sole service break coming in the fourth game. The two teams traded service breaks in the second and third games of the decider but all games went with serve until the 10th when Michael dropped service and conceded the match. Broad and Muller saved one game point and, at deuce, they had match point when Carl hit a simple volley into the net. Muller then put a service return down the middle and the brothers misunderstood each other and made no effort for a retrieve. Tommy Ho, another favourite with Hongkong's teen set, breezed past 74th-ranked Australian Richard Fromberg 7-5, 6-2 in his first-round singles match. Ho dropped service in the sixth game but immediately broke back and, with confidence restored, never let Fromberg back into the match as he scored another service break in the 11th game. The 19-year-old American-Chinese was in complete command in the second set which took less than 30 minutes. ''I lost to him two months ago but I played flawlessly today, playing the right game and made all my shots,'' said Ho, who will be looking for more revenge when he faces Brett Steven in the second round. He was beaten in straight sets at the Japan Open.
