Michael Chang looked back to his career and his triumph at Roland Garros in 1989 at the age of 17 in an interview to tennis website Behind the Raquet. The US player of Taiwanese origin became the youngest player in history to win a Grand Slam title.
Chang won a total of 34 ATP titles and was a three-time Grand Slam finalist. He reached a career-high of world number 2 in 1996. He won the Davis Cup title in 1990 with the US team and reached the quarter finals at Wimbledon in 1994, the ATP Finals title match in 1995 and two Grand Finals at the Australian Open and at the US Open in 1996.
Chang played his most famous match in the quarter final of the 1989 French Open where he came back from two sets down to beat Ivan Lendl 4-6 4-6 6-3 6-3 6-3. The US teenager was playing in his second French Open and his fifth Grand Slam singles event. Lendl was the world number 1 at that time and won three of the previous five editions of the French Open.
Chang suffered cramps and adopted some unusual tactics in an attempt to overcome the physical problem and shocked Lendl with an underarm serve. Chang continued to suffer from cramps, but he was able to take a 5-3 lead in the fifth set earning two match points on Lendl’s serve. Chang stood behind the service line while he was waiting to receive Lendl’s second serve. The tactic worked, as Lendl made a double fault to give Chang the win.
During his interview to Behind the Raquet Chang admitted that he could have enjoyed his career a little bit more.
“I think that there is probably one thing I would change about my time on tour, my mentality. When you are on tour, you have invincibility, to some degree. You don’t realize how quickly the time goes by. I think sometimes you are out there playing and you are thinking. Okay I am done with this year. I have next year on the tour. I turned pro slightly before my 16th birthday. I retired before my 32nd birthday. Those years just went by in a blink of an eye. Looking back, I could have enjoyed some moments, such as tournament victories. I think sometimes you win a tournament and if it’s a smaller tournament and if it’s a smaller tournament, you don’t really think twice about it. You just say: ‘Okay, It was a great tournament. I won it’.
“I probably would have taken more time to enjoy being world number two in the world. I might have changed my mentality in certain aspects of training. Had I known that I was going to play professionally for over fifteen years. I probably would have approached training differently. Today, players on tour have great longevity thanks to how they take care of their bodies. This process is much more advanced now and is very beneficial to a lot of the older players. Many guys in the top 10 can now play through their mid-to-late 30s. You surely didn’t see in my generation”.
Chang has coached Kei Nishikori since 2014 and led the Japanese player to the US Open final.
“For me, whether I am out helping Kei, my daughter, or a club player, it’s just a matter of enjoying it and helping players improve. It is rewarding to see the satisfaction on their faces when they say: ‘I understand that, I got it and that works’. For Kei, the rewards were the results that happened on tour. They came pretty quickly, which was a good thing. Kei is one of those players that picks up things incredibly fast. In so many ways he is a joy to watch”
Chang talked about the technology that changed tennis completely and the difference between the playing styles in his era and the current period. . “Tennis has changed as the raquet technology has evolved. If you look at my generation of players, you had a pretty good mix of baseliners, serve and volleyers, all-court players, and chip and chargers. You had a lot of different styles to play against. Nowadays, you don’t see that much variety. Current players can generate more power and spin. They grew up playing with the new technology and they know how to utilize it to the best of their ability. None of the guys that played in my generation still use their older raquets and strings, because the new technology allows to do much more with less effort”, said Chang.
