WESTERN AND SOUTHERN FINANCIAL GROUP MASTERS

August 8, 2002

Michael Chang

MICHAEL CHANG: Carlos was playing well today. You know, I think I had some chances there in the early part of the first set, and I just wasn't able to quite capitalize on those opportunities. I think that had I had those chances and did a little bit more, I think the first set might have been a little bit different; the match might have been different. But he played some good tennis today.

MICHAEL CHANG: Well, I know he had a pretty good clay court season last few tournaments. I think if he's able to play this kind of tennis, he's able to -- definitely will, you know, be a factor in the rest of the summer. You know, I think that he played some smart tennis today. He definitely has, you know, picked up on a few things. If I had picked up on them maybe a little bit quicker, I think maybe it would have been a closer match. Really felt like a few points here and there made the difference today. But, you know, he definitely was hitting the ball, you know, pretty deep today and was hitting his passing shots pretty well. So, you know, next time I'll approach things just a little bit different, and hopefully the outcome will be a little bit different, too.

MICHAEL CHANG: Yeah, no, I definitely made a lot of progress this week. I think that, you know, I discovered a lot of things about the way that I can play tennis and also about myself. You know, I've got to take that in to Washington DC next week and hopefully have a really good week next week. I think that that was -- you know, these few matches here were really discovery matches for me. I've been searching a long time to try to find something that can turn things around. To win those first couple matches and have an opportunity to win today, you know, this has put me in a direction that, you know, is a bit new for me over the past, you know, couple years. So, you know, I think it's good for me. We'll build on this week, yeah. We'll build on this week, and hopefully things will continue to get better from here on out.

MICHAEL CHANG: Well, I'm realizing that -- I think in many ways for me - tennis-wise and me as a person - I need to come out of my comfort zone. I think I'm very conservative by nature. I've been in a situation this week where I've played out of that, I've played out of my conservative zone, out of my comfort zone. I think it's helped me to play better tennis. So it's not easy, I think, for a person of my nature. But, you know, I think I'm at the point where I was forced to do it and, you know, definitely got a lot of benefits because of it.

MICHAEL CHANG: I had a lot of fun this week. I'm not a Patrick Rafter going out and bungy-jumping (smiling), but, you know, by all means this week was a lot of fun. It was great to be able to have the crowd behind me. It was great to come out and play some great tennis and get pumped up for matches. If you're not able to do that on the tennis court, then something's not right.

MICHAEL CHANG: Yeah. I think my general, you know, tendency in matches is really to play patient tennis, you know, hit a lot of great passing shots, run down a lot of shots. This week I don't think I did that a whole lot. That is the way that I've been playing tennis throughout my whole career. To be honest with you, over the past four, five years, it really hasn't gotten me very far. I've been forced to reassess things, reevaluate things, and, yeah, play a different style of tennis, try to change things. Like I said, every day is a new day trying to look for something different, trying to look for something that can get me going in the right direction. So we'll build on this week. And like I said, hopefully next week will be better than this week and the following week will be better than the last couple weeks.

MICHAEL CHANG: Yeah. I mean, Cincinnati's on my schedule. I can tell you right now Cincinnati's on my schedule for next year. I think that, you know, timetables, I'm never going to put a particular date on any kind of timetable that I have, whether -- I'm assuming that you're talking about, you know, as far as winding the career down. Yeah, I'm not going to put any kind of set timetable on it. I have a little timetable in my head, you know, maybe a year, year and a half. So that could be a little bit shorter, that could be a little bit longer, you know, depending on how things go and obviously a desire in my heart. If I don't have that desire to work hard off the court, a desire to go out and compete and to play and to get fired up for matches, then I know something's not right. But I don't feel that right now. You know, I feel like right now, coming off of a tournament here, a couple wins, a couple good wins, you know, I'm excited about next week. I'm pretty fired up and looking forward to it. Talking with Carl, we discovered some things, some things that we can still work on to get better, and this is really a good stepping stone for me. Yeah, I lost in the third round here, but there's a lot to be excited about from here on out.