The benchmark world tournament for 12-14 year olds celebrates its 40th edition this year. The former world No. 2, the youngest Grand Slam winner in history, is the first player who passed through Tarbes to have acquired worldwide fame. Souvenirs.
“Some will tell you that this is only a junior tournament, but the Petits As are anchored in my career, the place really has a very special meaning for me.” Special, the word will come out of the mouth of Michael Chang several times during the interview to evoke this winter of 1986, when in the company of his mother Betty, the young American of 13 years arrives in Tarbes in the most complete anonymity.
The rest is legendary: the player does not lose a set and wins the Pyrenean tournament; a little over three years later (1989), he lifted the Coupe des Mousquetaires on the central Roland-Garros to become the youngest Grand Slam winner in history (17 years and 3 months, a record he holds always), the only one on his list. “If I don’t win in Tarbes, I would never have had a wild card to play for the first time in Paris in 1988 because I was an unknown, explains the former world No. 2 from California. Les Petits As opened doors for me to play there, that’s for sure.”
Forever the first
Michael Chang, now 49 years old, therefore used the Petits As as a springboard and vice versa. At the time, the tournament was “just a regional adventure”, said Jean-Claude Knaebel, co-director of the event. But the American’s victory at Roland-Garros will turn everything upside down and propel the Petits As into an international dimension that the founders would not even have imagined in their wildest dreams. Michael Chang was the trigger before Martina Hingis, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal or Novak Djokovic flocked to the Tarbes Exhibition Center. “When Michael beat Stefan Edberg in the Roland final, we were with Hervé Siméon (one of the co-founders of the tournament) in the family box, with Betty his mother who had invited us. Everyone was wondering “but who are these people ?” and the notoriety of the tournament has been strongly impacted”.
The mother, a key figure in the rise of young Michael who had to be convinced to come to Tarbes. It was a few months before the 1986 Petits As, in Florida. “We went to see how the Orange Bowl was going (a benchmark American tournament for young people), remembers Claudine Knaebel, leader from the start. Michael was there playing under the gaze of his mother sitting on a bench. We asked him if they were interested in coming to play with us and it went like that. Sometimes in life, you need a little luck (smiles).”
“Tarbes was a shock for me because I had never played in front of so many people”
A few weeks later, an American delegation came to Tarbes for the first time. “It was for me the opportunity to confront myself with another tennis, to gauge myself”, explains Michael Chang, who confesses not to remember the name of his opponents too much, except that of a certain Fabrice Santoro. “His style, his technique: everything was already there, remembers the winner of the 1990 Davis Cup. I remember thinking to myself: “Oh my God, but who is this boy who can slice like that forehand and backhand (laughs)! ? It was impressive.” Chang-Santoro, a duel passed down to posterity in Tarbes when the two men met several times on the main circuit, notably in 2003 for the American’s last match at Roland-Garros.
But in Bigorre, what especially marked the young boy was the atmosphere. “It was a shock, he admits, because I had never played in front of so many people. There was a plethoric organization team, I was really excited by this environment.” An enthusiasm that Michael Chang, whose wife Amber also played in the Tarbes tournament, hopes why not come and share with his daughter Lani (11 years old, and among the best players in her category in California) in the near future. Chang and the Little As, a real family affair.
The teenager who served with the spoon against the world number 1
For many, Michael Chang remains this young boy with the monster nerve who unpinned the world No. 1 Ivan Lendl in the quarter-finals of Roland-Garros 1989 with, in particular, this service under the spoon that has become legendary. “At the time, I did not think, it was really not calculated, relates the person concerned. What is crazy is that I only served once with a spoon in my career, and people still remember it. It’s really very special that you’re remembered with just one gesture.” A few days later, the teenager signed the feat of winning the Parisian Grand Slam. “There is nothing rational about this victory, I believe there was divine intervention because it should never have happened. Even if I had won another Grand Slam, emotionally, nothing would have surpassed what happened at Roland-Garros.”
