97 usopen chang vs rafter

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Aero

New User
1/2 an answer

The "obvious" ones are:

1st row - Carl & Diana Chang (bro/coach + Carl's wife)

2nd row - Ken Matsuda (white shirt = fitness trainer)

3rd row - Joe Chang (father) & Ken Ross (agent)

Can anyone else fill in the blanks?! Was Jeff Austin there somewhere?

I really thought Chang was gonna win it that year. He was never the same after this defeat although he did beat Rafter a few weeks later in the Davis Cup Semi in DC. Injuries then "halted" his career. Shame.
 
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eric draven

Rookie
Aero said:
The "obvious" ones are:

1st row - Carl & Diana Chang (bro/coach + Carl's wife)

2nd row - Ken Matsuda (white shirt = fitness trainer)

3rd row - Joe Chang (father) & Ken Ross (agent)

Can anyone else fill in the blanks?! Was Jeff Austin there somewhere?

I really thought Chang was gonna win it that year. He was never the same after this defeat although he did beat Rafter a few weeks later in the Davis Cup Semi in DC. Injuries then "halted" his career. Shame.
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I remember his brother Carl blaming himself for Michael's dropoff the next year. He described how Michael was so close to being number one that Carl said they were going to work twice as hard to reach the top in 98. Instead,he overtrained and ended up injuring himself so often during the 98 season that he was never able to recover.
 
Nostradamus

Nostradamus

Bionic Poster
obsessedtennisfandisorder said:
Just wondering who the people are in changs box.

also...great clip for s@v fans.

rafter vs agassi 4th rd up on youtube too.

funny comment early where rafter had come to the net 49 times in the first hour and a bit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4HbACRuy3Y&feature=related.
Click to expand...

This match devastated Carl Chang. and nearly destroyed him. Chang has the French, he will always charish that. with his ability, he really shouldn't have won any major title.
 
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eric draven

Rookie
Nostradamus said:
This match devastated Carl Chang. and nearly destroyed him. Chang has the French, he will always charish that. with his ability, he really shouldn't have won any major title.
Click to expand...

Personally I'm suprised that Chang didn't win another GS. Although he was able to make a GS final later in his career. If anything, he proved that his style of game could win GS titles (during that era). I think this was proven by a player very similar to him in Lleyton Hewitt who won 2 GS titles.
 
Mustard

Mustard

Bionic Poster
When the big tournament favourite, Sampras, lost to Korda in the Round of 16 at the 1997 US Open, Chang became the clear new favourite, but he blew his chance with that loss to Rafter in straight sets. There's no doubt that Chang's peak as a player was from 1995-1997, even though his only major was in 1989.
 
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A

Aero

New User
eric draven said:
I remember his brother Carl blaming himself for Michael's dropoff the next year. He described how Michael was so close to being number one that Carl said they were going to work twice as hard to reach the top in 98. Instead,he overtrained and ended up injuring himself so often during the 98 season that he was never able to recover.
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Yes, i read MC's book. In addition to what u said, he hit the weights far too much, became more bulky & sadly slower.

After this match, Carl was seen just sitting there long after the match in disbelief, whilst ground staff were clearing away the garbage around him etc. That's what i've read anyway. But it was Rafter's year......or 2.
 
A

Aero

New User
eric draven said:
Personally I'm suprised that Chang didn't win another GS. Although he was able to make a GS final later in his career. If anything, he proved that his style of game could win GS titles (during that era). I think this was proven by a player very similar to him in Lleyton Hewitt who won 2 GS titles.
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Ye, he was close. He actually got to 3 more Slam Finals:

'95 French - lost to Muster

'96 Oz - lost to Becker

'96 US - lost to the Pistol. Could've been World No 1 too if he had won.
Shame he couldn't convert that 1 set point he had. Who
knows........

He'll always have Paris.

:)
 
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eric draven

Rookie
Aero said:
Ye, he was close. He actually got to 3 more Slam Finals:

'95 French - lost to Muster

'96 Oz - lost to Becker

'96 US - lost to the Pistol. Could've been World No 1 too if he had won.
Shame he couldn't convert that 1 set point he had. Who
knows........

He'll always have Paris.

:)
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That's right. I forgot about his '95 French final. Overall, he lost to three high quality players and most would kill to have that kind of a career.
 
Tshooter

Tshooter

G.O.A.T.
"When the big tournament favourite, Sampras, lost to Korda in the Round of 16 at the 1997 US Open, Chang became the clear new favourite"

I remember the Korda match pretty well. It was in the new stadium. May have been the first year they used Ashe. I remember sitting directly behind the south baseline in the loge (middle section) during that match and thinking boy these seats are so much higher then mid section old stadium. Pretty sure Pete dumped his forehand into the net on match point.

Anyway, when Pete went out Jmac would not shut up about it being Chang's best chance to win another Major. That is was now or never. He just kept repeating it.

I was also at the '96 final and Chang was a huge underdog and no one gave him much chance. Kind of remember a rain delay during the match. A lot of the Pete finals weren't great entertainment -- he was such a favorite. Pioline was one of the low points.

People think Rafa owns Fed and maybe he does but their matches I find very entertaining. Not so when Pete was playing player X in the semis/finals.
 
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Tobias Fünke

Tobias Fünke

Rookie
I seem to remember that if Corretja had converted his match point against Sampras in the 96 US Open quarterfinal, Chang would automatically been #1 no matter what happened the rest of the tournament. Sampras had not won a major that year up to that point so the #1 ranking would have really been up for grabs that year.
 
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eric draven

Rookie
Tobias Fünke said:
I seem to remember that if Corretja had converted his match point against Sampras in the 96 US Open quarterfinal, Chang would automatically been #1 no matter what happened the rest of the tournament. Sampras had not won a major that year up to that point so the #1 ranking would have really been up for grabs that year.
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Yet another reason that Sampras' 6 years at #1 is so remarkable.
 
D

Deleted member 307496

Guest
Chang lost his chance at a second slam that year.
 
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schang70

New User
Remember watching this match live back in '97. Rafter seemed every bit as fast as Chang but with more power. Chang's serve increased in velocity from his early years but his percentage was pretty low if I remembered correctly. Wonder how his career would have turned out if he hadn't focused so much on getting bigger and stronger. Remembered his brother just staring at the sky for a couple hours after this loss.
 
goran_ace

goran_ace

Hall of Fame
I remember watching Chang in like '98 or '99 at Cincinnati and thinking he looked a lot bigger than he used to. Legs were huge.
 
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