On This Day, 1988: Michael Chang wins first ATP singles title at 16

WATCH: Tennistory—Michael Chang

Through the prime years of Michael Chang’s life as a pro, his progress was deliberate. As Chang’s lifelong rival, Andre Agassi, once said, “Michael improves seven percent a year.”

But the early phases of Chang’s career were hardly subtle, his ascent instead marked by progress that lit up the skies like a dazzling comet.

The original vision of Chang’s parents, Joe and Betty, had been focused on education. Their hope was that both Michael and his older brother, Carl, would become good enough at tennis to earn college scholarships. Carl was right on course, becoming one of the nation’s top juniors. In 1987, 18-year-old Carl commenced his freshman year at the University of California at Berkeley, a squad that the previous season was one of the top 15 in the country.

Michael in 1987 turned 15 and leaped further than anyone had dared imagine. In July, he won the USTA Junior Hardcourt Championships, in the finals beating Pete Sampras. The next month in Kalamazoo came a title run at America’s most prestigious junior event, the USTA Boys’ 18 National Championships. Chang there won his last match over Jim Courier. Shortly after that, Chang made his US Open debut, in the first round earning a four-set victory over veteran Paul McNamee. In the wake of all that success, it naturally made sense for Chang to turn pro.

In 1988, Chang reached the round of 16 at the US Open, where he fought hard before losing to Agassi. Later that September, ranked 36 in the world, Chang arrived in San Francisco to play the Transamerica Open, a tournament with roots that went back to 1889. Since 1974, the tournament had been played at the Cow Palace, an indoor arena that had hosted everything from the lively 1964 Republican National Convention that nominated Barry Goldwater to Beatles concerts to the Golden State Warriors.

I just hope that a lot of young kids who can relate to me because of my age will look up to me. I hope that I will never be conceited and will remain humble because nobody is going to like you if you give them a hard time. Michael Chang

The Cow Palace was also where Chang made a major technical breakthrough that greatly aided his entire life. “We were practicing on center court,” Chang told San Francisco Chronicle writer Dwight Chapin in 2003, “and I said to my partner, ‘When you look over on the other side, is it blurry to you?’ He gave me a strange look and said, ‘No.’”

Chang immediately headed to an optometrist and was fitted for contact lenses. “After that,” said Chang, “every ball that I saw was so big, because my vision was so great.”

Unseeded that week in San Francisco, Chang won four matches without the loss of a set to reach his first ATP singles final. His most notable victory of those four was a 6-4, 6-0 win over Mikael Pernfors, the ’86 Roland Garros finalist who just the previous week had beaten Agassi in the finals of Los Angeles.

Chang’s opponent in the finals was Johan Kriek, a 30-year-old veteran who in many ways was the Fabio Fognini of his era: an incredibly lively shotmaker, capable of blistering the ball from all corners of the court. In the semis, Kriek had struck 16 aces to beat John McEnroe, the third time in nine years he’d upset McEnroe in San Francisco.

The match took place on October 2, 1988. Kriek won the first two games. “I have been blown out early before,” said Chang after the match, “so in the third game, I just tried to lob and switch my style a little more. I was able to hit with him and make him think.”

Chang soon took a 6-2, 2-0 lead, fought his way through a pair of long service games at 2-1 and 3-2, and eventually closed out the match in 75 minutes, 6-2, 6-3. At 16, Chang had become the youngest winner in the tournament’s history.

“I just hope that a lot of young kids who can relate to me because of my age will look up to me,” said Chang, who that day earned $59,500. “I hope that I will never be conceited and will remain humble because nobody is going to like you if you give them a hard time.”

Weeks later, tournament director Barry MacKay noted how Chang’s victory fit in with the tournament’s tradition of teen sensations who within a year earned major singles titles. In 1973, 17-year-old Bjorn Borg reached the finals of MacKay’s tournament and the next spring at Roland Garros won his first Grand Slam title.

Five years later, 19-year-old John McEnroe won the Transamerica Open and within twelve months had lifted the trophy at the US Open. And in 1985, another teen, Stefan Edberg, had also beaten Kriek in the finals at the Cow Palace and by the end of the year won the Australian Open.

MacKay proved prophetic. In June 1989, Chang became the first American man in 34 years to win the singles title at Roland Garros.