GREAT AMERICAN INSURANCE ATP CHAMPIONSHIP

August 9, 1997

Michael Chang

MIKI SINGH: Questions for Michael.

MICHAEL CHANG: I struggled quite a bit today. I think that was one aspect that hurt me a lot today. You know, I think that the serve and not being aggressive enough. You know I think was waiting for Thomas a little too much today and that combination hurt me. You know the times that I've done well against Thomas I've taken it to him, been aggressive. And just today you know, for some reason I wasn't able to -- just playing a little bit timid for some reason today. That was frustrating. But it's kind of -- at the same time was close to winning up a break in the third and stuff, and yeah. So given a chance to do that over, you know, I'd make those changes.

MICHAEL CHANG: No. Not really. I think that I know Thomas's game pretty well. I think that it's true that he's able to generate some pretty good power off his groundstrokes. I think for me it's not something that I feel like I'm too concerned with, because he does put a lot of top spin on the ball and I think that given the amount of time, I'm able to track the ball down okay. He is able to generate quite a bit of power. But to me, I know Thomas's game pretty well. Where, you know, it's just I know that it's part of his game and stuff.

MICHAEL CHANG: No. I think that Thomas is going to normally -- it's not really characteristic of the way that he is on the court. I'm sure why this week all of a sudden he's acting the way that he's acting. But, you know, for me it's really not a distraction. I've played against quite a number of players who -- where you go out there expecting a little bit of interaction with the crowd or, you know, comments here and there about different things. So for me it doesn't bother me.

MICHAEL CHANG: Well I get next week off. So I'll be able to rest and relax a little bit and hopefully get some good training in. And then Hamlet and the Open. So I feel like this upcoming week is going to be a pretty important week for me. I feel like so far it's been a pretty good summer. So you know, I'd like to be able to hopefully get good week in next week and then hopefully be able to take it to another level come Open time.

MICHAEL CHANG: Yeah. There has been a little bit of communication. I saw Gully actually earlier this week, so we're pretty excited about Davis and I've made myself available.

MICHAEL CHANG: Yeah.

MICHAEL CHANG: So actually it's pretty nice over there in Washington DC. And the people are a lot of fun to play in front of.

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