Professional career
On 1 September 1987,at age 15,Chang became the youngest player to win a main draw match at the US Open when he defeated Paul McNamee in four sets (6-3,6-7,6-4,6-4) in the first round. [9] [10] A month later,he reached the semifinals at Scottsdale,Arizona,to become the youngest player to reach the semifinal stage of a top-level professional tournament. [14] In 1988,aged 16 years and seven months,he won his first top-level singles title at San Francisco,defeating Johan Kriek in the final. [10] During his title run,Chang registed a 6-4,6-0 win over Mikael Pernfors,the 1986 French Open finalist who just the previous week had beaten Andre Agassi in the finals of Los Angeles. [12]
Chang's most significant "youngest-ever" record came in 1989 when he won the French Open at the age of 17 years,110 days,to become the youngest male player ever to win a Grand Slam title. [10] He defeated Stefan Edberg in a five-set final,6–1,3–6,4–6,6–4,6–2. [15] Chang thus became the first American man to win the French Open since Tony Trabert in 1955,and the first American man to win a Grand Slam since 1984. [10] His 1989 French Open tournament performance is equally remembered for an epic fourth-round encounter with Ivan Lendl,who was then the world's No. 1-ranked player,was the reigning Australian Open champion,and was a three-time former French Open champion. [10] [16]
In 1988,Chang had been easily beaten by Lendl in an exhibition match held in Des Moines,Iowa. After the match,Lendl advised Chang,"First off,you've got no serve. And you've certainly got no second serve. You can't hurt me. You can run but you better develop a weapon to survive out here",all weaknesses that Chang worked to improve on. [17] At the 1989 French Open,Lendl appeared to be on the way to beating Chang after taking the first two sets 6–4,6–4 and breaking Chang's serve in his opening service game of the third set. However,Chang broke back immediately and went on to claim the third set,6–3. During the fourth set,Chang experienced a severe attack of leg cramps,and though he won the set to level the match,he considered retiring from the match while up 2–1 in the fifth set. He later said that he felt "an unbelievable conviction in my heart" not to give up,and decided to finish the match. [18] [19]
Chang adopted some unusual tactics in an attempt to overcome his cramps. Those tactics included hitting shots high into the air (known as "moon balls") to slow the match down and going for more winners in order to shorten the points. [20] The success of these tactics caused Lendl to lose his rhythm and also prompted him to swear at the umpire and the crowd,especially after losing a key point in the fifth set when Chang shocked him by delivering an under-arm serve. [21] On match point,Chang stood just behind the service line while waiting to receive Lendl's second serve. The tactic worked,as Lendl produced a double-fault to give Chang the victory,4–6,4–6,6–3,6–3,6–3,in 4 hours and 37 minutes.
Chang subsequently defeated Ronald Agénor in the quarter-final and Andrei Chesnokov in the semi-final. Then seven days after his match against Lendl,after beating Stefan Edberg in five sets,Chang went on to lift the Coupe des Mousquetaires ,becoming the youngest men's champion in Grand Slam history. [22] [23] Chang's match against Lendl was played on June 5,1989,just one day after the height of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. Chang has frequently noted the impact of the massacre when recalling his French Open victory:
A lot of people forget that Tiananmen Square was going on. The crackdown that happened was on the middle Sunday at the French Open, so if I was not practicing or playing a match, I was glued to the television, watching the events unfold...I often tell people I think it was God's purpose for me to be able to win the French Open the way it was won because I was able to put a smile on Chinese people's faces around the world at a time when there wasn't much to smile about. [24]
Chang became the first American man to win the French Open since Tony Trabert in 1955, [25] [26] [27] and the first American man to win a Grand Slam since 1984. [28] In August 1989, Chang became the youngest player to be ranked in the world's top 5.
Chang would defeat Lendl again in near-duplicate fashion, 2–6, 4–6, 6–4, 7–6 (7–5), 9–7 in a 4-hour, 42-minute semi-final match at the Grand Slam Cup on December 14, 1991. [29]
Chang met Edberg in the semifinals of the US Open in 1992; this time, Edberg won in five sets, 6–7, 7–5, 7–6, 5–7, 6–4. The five-hour, 26-minute match is the longest in US Open history. [30] [31] Chang reached three further Grand Slam finals after his 1989 French Open triumph, losing the 1995 French Open final to Thomas Muster, the 1996 Australian Open final to Boris Becker, and the 1996 US Open final to Pete Sampras. In the 1995 French Open, he defeated Michael Stich and then two-time defending champion Sergi Bruguera in the semifinals in straight sets, eventually losing to Muster. In both the 1996 Australian and U.S. Opens, he defeated Andre Agassi in the semifinals in straight sets; a win over Sampras at the U.S. Open would have made Chang the no. 1 player in the world. In the 1997 U.S. Open, he was the odds-on favorite to win after Sampras was upset by Petr Korda; however, Chang lost to eventual champion Patrick Rafter in the semifinals in straight sets.
Chang is the first player to be beaten by Roger Federer in the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament, at the 2000 Australian Open. [32] He is also the second player to be beaten by Andy Roddick in the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament, in the second round of the French Open in 2001. [33]
Chang was introduced to tennis by his father Joe, who was his first coach. During his rise in 1989 (including his French Open title), he was coached by José Higueras. For much of his professional career, he was coached by his older brother Carl Chang, who also played in several doubles tournaments with him in the early 1990s.
Chang retired from the professional tour in 2003. During his career, he won a total of 34 top-level professional singles titles. His final top-level title was won in 2000 at Los Angeles. His total career prize-money earnings was US$19,145,632. His career-high singles ranking was world no. 2 in 1996, following his US Open finals performance. He was a year-end top-ten player for six consecutive years in the 1990s (1992–1997), a feat matched in the decade only by Pete Sampras. He is one of a few players to win ATP titles in three different decades. His three Indian Wells Masters titles was an ATP record which stood for 15 years, before being eclipsed by Roger Federer in 2012.
Chang's success marked the start of an era in which a new generation of American players—which also included Pete Sampras, Jim Courier, and Andre Agassi—would come to dominate the game. [22]
United States 
