Michael Te-pei Chang was born on February 22,1972 and is an American former professional tennis player and coach.
43 Facts About Michael Chang
2.
Michael Chang is the youngest man in history to win a singles major, winning the 1989 French Open at 17 years and 109 days old.
3.
In 2008, Michael Chang was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
4.
Michael Chang attended the master's in ministry program at Biola University in La Mirada, California, for a year and a half.
5.
Michael Chang first came to the tennis world's attention as an outstanding junior player who set numerous "youngest-ever" records.
6.
Michael Chang won his first national title, the USTA Junior Hard Court singles, at the age of 12.
7.
Two years later, aged 15, Michael Chang won the USTA Boys 18s Hardcourts and the Boys 18s Nationals, and became the youngest player to win a main draw match at the US Open when he defeated Paul McNamee in four sets in the first round.
8.
Michael Chang won his first top-level singles title in 1988 at San Francisco, aged 16 years and 7 months.
9.
Michael Chang's victory is equally remembered for an epic five-set encounter with Ivan Lendl in the fourth round.
10.
Michael Chang became the first American man to win the French Open since Tony Trabert in 1955, and the first American man to win a Grand Slam since 1984.
11.
Michael Chang reached three further Grand Slam finals after his 1989 French Open triumph, losing the 1995 French Open final to Thomas Muster, the 1996 Australian Open final to Boris Becker, and the 1996 US Open final to Pete Sampras.
12.
Michael Chang was a key member of the US team which won the Davis Cup in 1990.
13.
Michael Chang went on to defeat Darren Cahill in straight sets, as the US defeated Australia in the final.
14.
Michael Chang was on the US team which won the World Team Cup in 1993.
15.
Michael Chang represented the US in the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, reaching the second round before being eliminated by Jaime Oncins.
16.
Michael Chang chose to skip the 1996 Summer Olympics despite the fact that the event was held in Atlanta and that he would have been the tournament's number-one seed.
17.
Michael Chang participated in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, where he was eliminated in the first round by Sebastien Lareau.
18.
Michael Chang was introduced to tennis by his father Joe, who was his first coach.
19.
For much of his professional career, he was coached by his older brother Carl Michael Chang, who played in several doubles tournaments with him in the early 1990s.
20.
Michael Chang was the first player to be beaten by Roger Federer in the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament, at the 2000 Australian Open.
21.
Michael Chang was the second player to be beaten by Andy Roddick in the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament, in the second round of the French Open in 2001.
22.
Michael Chang was a year-end top-ten player for six consecutive years in the 1990s, a feat matched in the decade only by Pete Sampras.
23.
Michael Chang is one of a few players to win ATP titles in three different decades.
24.
Michael Chang's three Indian Wells Masters titles was an ATP record which stood for 15 years, before being eclipsed by Roger Federer in 2012.
25.
Since retiring from the top-level game, Michael Chang has joined Jim Courier's senior tour, which began on March 10,2006, in Naples, Florida.
26.
Michael Chang defeated Eduardo Masso, Pete Sampras and Francisco Roig, dropping only one set, in reaching the fourth round.
27.
In 1988, Michael Chang had been easily beaten by Lendl in an exhibition match held in Des Moines, Iowa.
28.
Michael Chang later said that he felt "an unbelievable conviction in my heart" not to give up, and decided to finish the match.
29.
Michael Chang paced the sidelines during changeovers as he risked not being able to get up if he sat down, and ate bananas and drank water at every opportunity.
30.
Michael Chang adopted some unusual tactics in an attempt to overcome his cramps such as hitting the ball high into the air on many points to slow the game down, and began to go for more winners in order to shorten the points.
31.
The success of these tactics caused Lendl, known to be one of the least easily fazed players, to lose his rhythm and prompted him to swear at the umpire and the crowd, especially after losing a key point in the fifth set when Michael Chang shocked him by delivering an under-arm serve.
32.
Michael Chang sank to his knees and broke down in tears at the conclusion of the match.
33.
You'd have to say he was a lesser player then, but Michael Chang backed it up.
34.
Michael Chang subsequently defeated Ronald Agenor in the quarter-final and Andrei Chesnokov in the semi-final.
35.
Michael Chang has frequently noted the impact of the massacre when recalling his French Open victory:.
36.
Michael Chang signed a multimillion-dollar endorsement deal with Reebok in 1988; he wore Reebok apparel and Reebok Court Victory Pumps shoes during his tennis career and used Prince rackets on court.
37.
Michael Chang started using the Prince "Precision Michael Chang Graphite" 28-inch signature racket in 1994, which was an inch longer than the standard model.
38.
Michael Chang served as Chairman of ATP Tour Charities in 1994.
39.
Michael Chang has supported grassroots tennis development in Asia through his Stars of the Future program in Hong Kong and the Reebok Challenge across Asia.
40.
Michael Chang was one of five athletes named in the second annual "Most Caring Athlete" list by USA Today Weekend in 1995.
41.
Michael Chang has served as a national spokesman for the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation in the US.
42.
In 2001, Michael Chang served as a goodwill ambassador for the 2008 Beijing Olympic bid committee.
43.
On October 18,2008, Michael Chang married Amber Liu, a professional tennis player.