PARIS — What better place for an underhand serve than the French Open?

The French already have a better name for it than we English speakers. They call it “un service à la cuillère,” or a spoon serve.

The trick shot — even rarer than a day without a transport strike in Paris — played a major role in the 1989 French Open, when Michael Chang, just 17, sprang it on Ivan Lendl in the fifth set of their epic fourth-round match.

Chang was cramping and already had considered and then reconsidered retiring from the match. But his gambit worked like a charm against Lendl, who was 12 years older and the No. 1 seed. Chang won the point at 4-3, 15-30, went on to win the match and, even more magically, the tournament.

Another young American, Jared Donaldson, revived Chang’s tactic Wednesday at the French Open, but it will not have the same effect.

Donaldson, an unseeded 21-year-old with plenty of potential, ended up losing his five-setter against No. 4 seed Grigor Dimitrov in the second round, 6-7 (2), 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, 10-8.

But like Chang, Donaldson was cramping and thinking creatively, and also like Chang, Donaldson won a point deep in the fifth set with an underhand serve. At least, that’s what happened on his first attempt.

“I would never try it if I was feeling 100 percent and stuff, but obviously Grigor was playing so far back on the return that I felt like maybe it’s just something to try,” Donaldson said. “And I think honestly it just surprised him. He obviously wasn’t expecting it, you know what I mean? It was kind of a cheeky way to get a point.”

— The New York Times