RENDEZ-VOUS CHEZ NOUS Michael Chang joins fellow tennis legends for Bell Centre reunion,
Pace of today’s game much quicker, court legend Chang says on eve of Bell Centre match vs. Agassi
With all the talk of the big four in men’s tennis these days – Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray – and the lack of American names in the top 10, it’s easy to forget that it wasn’t always that way.
Through the 1990s, the U.S. had a “big four” all its own, a generation of players the country – any country – will probably never duplicate given the increasingly global nature of the sport.
Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Jim Courier and Michael Chang were all so different.
Chang, with less flash and dash in his game, style and personality, didn’t get the same amount of attention and kept a much lower profile.
These days, it’s still that way.
“I think, generally speaking, my personality is a little more like Pete’s. Andre hasn’t been retired for that long, considering. Jim has his (Champions) Tour, he does some commentating, and he’s obviously doing well as Davis Cup captain. Pete’s been playing a fair amount,” Chang said Thursday before taking the court with the Nuns’ Island Tennis Club’s brightest junior players to dispense tips and tell stories.
Chang will play Agassi Friday night at the Bell Centre in the feature matchup at the inaugural Montreal Rendez-vous.
The opening act will have Ivan Lendl playing an eightgame pro set against 1987 Wimbledon champion Pat Cash, a late replacement for an ailing Jimmy Connors.
Connors, who had a hip replacement i n 2005, had been having issues with the hip and despite undergoing intensive treatment, was unable to get healthy enough to complete.
Chang, who turned 40 last week, has kept a fairly low profile compared with his contemporaries.
“I’ve been getting out, spending time with family, I got married a few years ago and have a daughter who’s now 15 months. And I’m doing a lot of other things with our Chang Family Foundation, maybe doing things that aren’t quite as much in the spotlight,” Chang said.
“I still do play on the Champions Tour, still do get my face out there periodically.”
His life on Tour, which began so early because his tennis mind was so precocious, his will so strong, was a precursor in some ways of what we see now.
Back then, he was the only one of his American contem-
“It’s the speed of the game, and the racquets and the strings have a lot to do with that.”
poraries to travel often with his parents, and his brother Carl was his coach.
That seems to be almost the norm now, but it was fairly unusual then – especially on the men’s Tour.
Chang’s quieter personality, and a game that was all about grit, determination and speed, didn’t get the headlines. Yet he was the first of them to win a major, at the French Open in 1989, when he was only 17.
That’s another thing that isn’t likely to happen again. Men’s tennis is at such a physical level these days, a still-growing teenager can no longer compete.
“At the last Australian Open final – for Novak (Djokovic) to come back after five tough sets in the semis and play Rafa (Nadal) five tough sets and be able to grind that one out, just shows you how fit these guys are, how eager they are,” said Chang, who added the difference in today’s game is more than fitness.
“It’s the speed of the game, and the racquets and the strings have a lot to do with that,” he said.
“When the new generation started to come out on tour with the new technology,” Chang said, “I specifically remember having some shots coming my way where I had not seen that kind of bounce before. It was a bit difficult to kind of get used to it.
“Nowadays, almost all of the guys on the Champions Tour are playing with new technology,” he added. “We’re able to generate a lot more pace now, a lot more spin, and hit some shots we were not able to hit when we were out on Tour.”
Chang was certainly cracking the ball with his Nadal-like Babolat with the kids Thursday.
Along with Cash and Lendl, Chang was in Florida this week playing legends’ matches as part of the ATP Tour event in Delray Beach. Lendl was supposed to be at the clinic yesterday, but his plane was late arriving because of weather.
Agassi, who recently underwent the same hip surgery that top Can-
“It gives us an opportunity to laugh
and smile a bit.”
MICHAEL CHANG
adian Milos Raonic had last summer, has been hitting with some of the Adidas-sponsored players at home in Las Vegas.
They’ll all be match-tough. But it won’t be dog-eat-dog.
“Being retired, and all of now in our 40s, we’re enjoying tennis again,” Chang said.
“And it gives us an opportunity to laugh and smile a bit, and joke around a little more with the crowd.”
He was asked Thursday about the one shot no one will ever forget – the surprise underhand serve he hit late in his semifinal match against Lendl at that 1989 French Open when, tired and cramping, he had to pull out all the stops.
Chang will probably be asked about that one when he’s in the retirement home. But he didn’t mind retelling the story one more time.
And he said might just pull it out Friday night against his old rival Agassi, just for old time’s sake.
smyles@montrealgazette.com