Michael Chang

Trivia

• Chang first came to the tennis world’s attention as a brilliant junior player who set numerous “youngest-ever” records.
• Chang won his first national title, the USTA Junior Hard Court singles, at the age of 12. At age 13, he won the Fiesta Bowl 16s.
• In 1987, aged 15, Chang won the USTA Boys 18s Hardcourts and the Boys 18s Nationals, and became the youngest player to win a main draw match at the US Open when he defeated Paul McNamee in four sets in the first round.
• A month later he reached the semi-finals at Scottsdale, Arizona to become the youngest player to reach the semi-final stage of a top-level professional tournament.
• He won his first top-level singles title in 1988 at San Francisco, aged 16 years and 7 months.
• Chang’s most significant youngest-ever record came in 1989 when he won the French Open at the age of 17 years and 3 months, to become the youngest male player ever to win a Grand Slam title.
• He defeated Stefan Edberg in a memorable five-set final, winning 6-1, 3-6, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.
• His victory is equally remembered for an epic five-set encounter with Ivan Lendl in the fourth round (see below).
• Chang became the first American man to win the French Open since 1955.
• And in August 1989, Chang became the youngest player to be ranked in the world’s top-five on the men’s singles rankings.

Quotes

• "Maybe sometimes I'm such a thinker, I reevaluate too much. Sometimes when it comes down to it, I really don't need to do anything, I don't really need to change anything. I need to just keep plugging away, working at it."
• "If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try, try, try again."
• "I'm a competitive person and it is in my nature to try hard in every match I play. The only time I'm not competitive is when I'm playing against my mom."
• "As long as there's pasta and Chinese food in the world, I'm okay."
• "All of the Spaniards are really talented. I don't know what they eat."
• “He is quite incredible - it made me think a bit about me winning the French Open at 17 and how professionals accomplish things so young. I had the feeling Tiger Woods did not quite know what was going on and it was like that for me at the French. It was only afterwards that I realized the significance.”
• “I think that I would rather grow racquet-wise than grow taller. I think I would be a lot slower if I got taller. So I wouldn't want to give up that.”
• “All of the Spaniards are really talented. I don't know what they eat.”
• “As long as there's pasta and Chinese food in the world, I'm okay.”
• “In the 1980s and 1990s, no one wanted to touch a narrow-focused antibiotic, something that treated one or two things. Everyone wanted to pursue broad, across-the-board antibiotics. That's all changed.”