U.S. OPEN

September 2, 1996

Michael Chang

MICHAEL CHANG: Tonight was definitely, I think, a better match for me. I was playing better tennis, things were going pretty well tonight.

MICHAEL CHANG: I think I'll just continue to pretty much work on everything. I was pleased that my serve was better tonight. I definitely had to serve better tonight. Jakob would be coming in on the second serve and coming in effectively. For me it was an important part of the match today. Just take tomorrow off and just prepare for the next round.

MICHAEL CHANG: You know, fan support is great. It has been wonderful throughout my career. You know, I think tonight, you know, walking on the court I was pretty relaxed. It was just one of those nights where things really went well. I mean, I still had to come out and play good tennis because Jakob is a darn good player. But, yeah, everything felt pretty good today.

MICHAEL CHANG: I think, you know, whenever you're able to win a match, whether it's three sets or five sets, I don't think you really complain. I wouldn't be complaining about winning the last match in five sets. It's just something that, you know, do what you have to do. Sometimes if it takes three sets, it's three, if it's, four, four sets, if it's five, five sets. You do what you need to do in order to get things done. My last match was a very, very tough match.

MICHAEL CHANG: Possibly, possibly. I think, you know, it's true that if you do have maybe too many matches. I think Pete Sampras is a good example of that at the French Open this year, he had so many tough five-set matches, going into the semifinals he was pretty tired. I think it was good that tonight was three straight sets. It was still tough. Also at night you're not going to feel quite as much fatigue as maybe during the day.

MICHAEL CHANG: I do. I don't think I do anything different than anybody else. I'm staying with family, so the US Open for me is a relaxing tournament. I come in and get a light hit and stuff, go back, watch the other guys bust their butts, just pretty much take it easy.

MICHAEL CHANG: I think it was important for me to return well, to return well and serve well. Jakob has a very good serve and also he covers the net very well. I mean, he's primarily a serve and volley player, but he's also a great doubles player. He has a very good sense of where he is at the net, so it was important for me to do both tonight.

MICHAEL CHANG: To?

MICHAEL CHANG: I was talking to the linesman. I was pretty sure I had a bad call at the baseline. You know, everyone's human. He saw it good, so.

MICHAEL CHANG: The forehand he hit actually on that one side, that was pretty close. I didn't really get a good look at it, but that was pretty close. We had quite a few, actually, pretty close calls. Jakob felt that some calls went against him, I felt some calls went against me. Like I said, everyone's going to get bad calls. Some are going to go for you, some are going to go against you. You really can't let that bother.

MICHAEL CHANG: No, I don't think so. Jakob is a veteran on Tour. He knows the Tour very well. He's been in almost every situation. He knows how to handle these kind of things. He's very much a veteran on Tour. He seemed actually pretty relaxed tonight.

MICHAEL CHANG: Quarterfinals, just taking things match by match really. Players are just too good to be looking ahead. For me, you know, Javier Sanchez is a really tough player, a lot of tough matches with him, a lot of long points. To play him in quarterfinals is not going to be easy.

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