Michael Chang has fond memories of Minnesota but during an interview last week wasn’t ready to move back here despite a pitch from a sportswriter about the warm and sunny late summer weather.
“I think you need to tell me what the weather is like maybe a few more months down the road,” he said. “Believe it or not, I really enjoyed it in Minnesota. We lived in St. Paul until I was about seven years old.”
Chang enjoyed the outdoors here including fishing but the family realized his tennis development was limited by the Minnesota climate. “I think after awhile my mom was a little bit tired of shoveling snow at five o’clock in the morning just to get out, and we decided to pack up and move down to San Diego,” Chang said. “But we certainly did enjoy our time there.”
Chang is part of the 12-city Champions Series that makes a stop at Target Center on Friday night. Eight tennis legends are competing in the series with the top three finishers sharing a bonus pool of $1 million. The Minneapolis players will be Chang, Andre Agassi, Jim Courier and John McEnroe. The other series players are Bjorn Borg, Jimmy Connors, Pete Sampras and Mats Wilander.
Sampras won in two of three cities last week as the series began and he leads the field with 900 points, according to the series website. Chang is tied for second with Courier at 500 points each.
The format in each city has the four players paired off in one-set semi-finals matches, followed by the winners contending for that evening’s championship in an eight-game pro-set match.
At 59 Connors is the oldest of the players, while Chang is the youngest at 39. “As far as the level of tennis, I think we’re still able to play some great tennis,” Chang said. “Just not able to sustain it I think from day to day, playing three, four, five tough matches, or playing three out of five set match. But certainly in the Champions Series format, I think it fits us pretty well.”
Billed as the LeeAnn Chin Challenge here, newspaper ads have Chang’s opponent being the 52-year-old McEnroe. The two have played against each other many times including in 1991 when Chang defeated McEnroe in a memorable match at the U.S. Open
“I think it’s special to play against John no matter where you play against him,” Chang said. “But I think to have the opportunity to play against him in New York in a night match was something special. Obviously it was great that I won the match, but to play him in his backyard with the New York crowd just going absolutely nuts was a lot of fun to be part of.”
Friday night may not be as memorable but Chang’s enthusiasm for tennis is still present. “It’s important for me to go out there and play with a lot of heart…and play smart tennis,” he said.