U.S. OPEN

September 4, 1992

Michael Chang

MICHAEL CHANG: I think the overall match, you know, I think was more or less, you know, if Patrick had won more points at the net than if I could pass him or not, I think that really came down to if I was able to hit a great volley. I tried to mix up my serve a little bit because I know that Patrick IS playing a lot of doubles, being one of the best doubles players in the world, has won one of the best returns and he has got very good hands and good touch on his volleys. I just tried to play a steady tennis, and tried not to make a whole lot of errors.

Q. Were you pleased with your performance?

MICHAEL CHANG: I think that my performance -- it was good today. I still feel that I think it needs to go up another notch. I felt that my passing shots were good today. My serve was good today. I think those were the keys that really helped me to win this one.

Q. Talking about how you need to go up another notch or another level here; in view of that, what did you think of your seed when you first realized you were fourth seed in this round?

MICHAEL CHANG: For me, being fourth seed, actually, is a big difference than either not being seeded at all or being anywhere from 9 to 16, where I am normally am, where I used to be. I think now it kind of opens up the draw a little bit better for me. I no longer have to draw an Edberg in the round of 16, like I did last year. I think that the draw probably, you know, I don't have to play the top eight seed 'till the quarters. It helps out.

Q. Michael, can you just briefly-- this is off the topic of today, but just briefly talk about the power debate and your thoughts on it and how have adjusted to the power game and so forth?

MICHAEL CHANG: Well, I don't know, you know, it is tough to say whether it is a trend, power test is a trend or if it is actually a particular strategy. I think that my first round match was kind of a good example. Ellis plays with a wide body racket. He plays very much a go-for-hit type of tennis. If he makes it, he is almost, 90% of the time, a winner, or you just get the racket out but not be able to do anything with it. I think that wide body rackets will help a few of the players, I think, particularly the players who hit flatter, where they rely more on letting the ball come down by itself, instead of spins. I think that it is -- you are becoming -- you are playing more and more players who are hitting harder and harder. You have the rackets -- I believe the courts have actually got a lot faster than what they used to be. I think that really, you look at the whole year you know, the beginning is like the indoor hard court season, which is pretty fast, you get over to the clay court season, all the clay court tournaments are trying to quicken things up. I think that the French is actually a lot faster than what it was before. Wimbledon is fast and you come over here, hard court season again, it is fast. After this, you go to the indoor season on supreme, which is fast as well. So I think it is not really for me in my position to really, you know, complain or to try to change anything. You know being 20 years old, you know, I have to learn to try to adapt, and do different things to kind of counteract the power; whether it is coming in; whether it is taking a little pace off the ball; whether it's keeping the ball lower or higher, depending on the player.

Q. Is it good for tennis or not, do you think, from your point of view? Will it attract more fans or will it --

MICHAEL CHANG: I think that honestly, it is probably pretty exciting for the public to be able to watch a power player go against a player who is kind of an either a counterpuncher or a finesse player. Obviously, if one gets blown off the court, it is not that much fun. I think when you have a good match up, I think, in a sense, that maybe you know, it matches up well, if you can get that kind of combination.

Q. When you play a guy who hasn't played you or for a year or so, do you sense any surprise on his part, when he realizes you are hitting the ball harder and being a more powerful type of player than you used to be?

MICHAEL CHANG: You mean Patrick?

Q. Patrick or anybody you haven't played for a while; then they noticed that you changed your game a little bit.

MICHAEL CHANG: I don't know if they rely -- I think that they are more aware of it, as you are changing your game. Normally, whether they are watching -- they don't necessarily have to play against you to know that you have changed your game. A lot of times you can just -- you will be watching a match and you will notice certain things about players. You know, in the lockerroom, word gets around very, very fast. If you have one particular weakness, you may think that nobody knows, but everybody knows. And by all means, all of a sudden, you will realize everybody is attacking that weakness and trying to open it up more and more, and you know, we start to pick up on these things and you realize that you have to keep on improving, because the game is -- the game and the players are constantly improving. If you don't improve, you are going to fall back.

Q. Does this play -- playing Patrick remind you of playing John?

MICHAEL CHANG: Not quite. Actually, I think that -- I would say that they are more opposites. Patrick is a little more on the mental side than John. I think that -- I know that was John was mentioning to me that was one of the tough things about playing doubles with Patrick, is that the personalities were -- they are so different, you get into a tight situation, and John would say to Patrick "all right, we got to get pumped up we got to get pumped up" and Patrick would say to John, "everything is under control. It is cool. It is cool." I think that they are very much opposites, but I think that Patrick has picked up a few things from John, a lot -- a little bit on the volleys, the touch, Patrick has very, very good touch, especially off his backhand side of his backhand volley.

Q. You talked about how pleased you were with the seeding and how that has opened up a lot of things for you. Were you surprised when you saw that you were the fourth seed or did you expect to be?

MICHAEL CHANG: Well, the U.S. Open has not changed the seeding like Wimbledon in the past, so if I knew that I was number 4, before the -- before Hamlet, you know, I was going to be seeded number 4, regardless of what the -- if the rankings changed after the Hamlet cup.

Q. Thank you.

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