Of Michael Chang: 1989 French Open Winner
I didn’t use to be a tennis fan, didn’t know much about it before coming to Australia. But the hype of every year’s Australian Open here has piqued my interest in it.
I watched Gonzalez pounded his way into the finals in this tournament, and was mucho impresso by his awesome forehand shots. Much be one of the hardest hitting forehanders in the tour right now.
Anyway, was hoping he would be able to upset Federer that night, but alas, he went down in straight sets. Federer, the demigod of tennis, was simply too good. All the other top players have certain weapons which they are adept at, such as Andy Roddick with his serve, or Fernando Gonzalez with his tremendous forehand shots. However, Federer is just good in everything! But I think his key weapon which he does better than anyone right now is his forecourt plays and his backhand returns.
Anyway, this new interest in tennis reminded me of a few names from the dark recesses of my memory. One of them was Michael Chang. But I wasn’t sure why though.
So I wikied him, and found out a couple of interesting things about him. Michael Chang was the 1989 French Open champion, becoming the youngest player ever to win a Grand Slam tournament at the age of 17 and 3 months (I think he still holds that record, unless Nadal has broken it already). Unfortunately, that was his one and only Grand Slam win in his career. He is a Taiwanese-American, and the first American to win the French Open since eons.
But what a win man. I didn’t realise how dramatic it was until now. Michael Chang came into the tournament tagged as a promising young talent, but being a skinny dude in his first year as a pro, wasn’t given any hope of winning the tournament. However, he duly progressed until the 4rd round, where he meet Ivan Lendl, the current World No. 1 and 3-time previous winner of that tournament. That match started very badly for him, with him losing the first 2 sets 4-6, 4-6. However, his famous tenacity and never-say-die attitude kicked in and he rallied back to win the 3rd set 6-3. However, disaster struck again at in the fourth set, where he experienced severe leg cramps. The excruciating pain deprived him of his greatest asset: his speed and court coverage (he was a counterpuncher-style player, which typically rely on their speed to return their opponent’s every shot until they made a mistake. Think Lleyton Hewitt’s style of play).
This was when things started to get very interesting in that match. Michael resorted to doing lots of crazy stuff to stall for time. He stayed in the toilet for long periods of time during his breaks. He ate lots of bananas and drank water copiously to try to elevate his cramps. On court, he started slowing the pace of the game down by playing uncharacteristic slow lobs to Lendl. It worked and he managed to win that 4th set 6-3 to equalise. Then in the 5th set, Chang did something which shocked everyone and which have now achieved cult status in the annals of tennis history: He served an under-arm serve. For those of you who don’t know what that is, it’s like how badminton players serve. However, this serve is considered a pathetic serve when compared to the ace-producing overhead serves normally done in tennis. So as a result, only beginners use that serve and almost no professional player ever uses it. Even more so in Grand Slam tournaments like that one. Lendl was totally unprepared for that serve, and proceeded to lose that point.
Check out the serve here:
Then Chang did one last crazy thing for his match point. During Lendl’s serve, Chang went and stood in front of the baseline near the T-line. This was madness as he could get creamed with a serve. This act rattled Lendl again and he did a double-fault during his serve. Which won Chang the match.
A good article on it by The Guardian.
You’ve just gotta admire the guy’s guile 
Man oh man, I wish I could find the video for that match. Sounded like a tremendous match!
I like tennis now 
Favourite player: Fernando Gonzalez
Favourite style: Aggresive baseliners, counterpunchers
