The French Open is the most physically gruelling tennis tournament on the planet, the men's tournament especially as it is best of five sets. To win it you need to be a beast of a player with the strength to out-punch his opponent and the stamina to out-last them in rallies over the potential five sets.
So when a 17 year-old 'kid' rocks up to Roland Garros as a 15th seed nothing really was expected of him but in the following two weeks Michael Chang would produce clay court tennis from the gods to defeat the best men in the world.
He beat another teenager Pete Sampras in straight sets on the way to facing number one seed and world number one Ivan Lendl in the fourth round. Those of you who are too young to remember Lendl think a tennis machine in cyborg form. Lendl for many was unbeatable. But no one told the 17 year-old kid!
With a tennis wisdom far beyond his years and through cramping legs he employed a whole range of 'different' tactics and techniques, including an underhand serve, to push Lendl around the court in the fifth set. At 3-5 down Lendl served to stay in the match giving Chang two match points. With a whimper Lendl double faulted and the match was Chang's. The most amazing match witnessed in a long while on Roland Garros's centre court.
With that win though came the public and professional backlash given the tactics he deployed so successfully which were considered unsportsmanlike. That didn't stop him going on to beat Stefan Edberg in the final and in doing so secure history as the youngest Grand Slam champion ever (and still is!).
For me Chang's French Open victory is vastly superior to that of a young Boris Becker's maiden Wimbledon victory due the gladiatorial nature of tennis over five sets on clay. For a 'boy' to take on the elite men of tennis and beat them by his physicality and stamina marks this achievement as possibly the most underrated sporting achievement of all time. I'm pretty sure we'll not see any male as young win the French Open in my lifetime and for that reason and the fact that I can't think of any man so young managing to beat established and world class older rivals so well in any sport this victory has to rank up there with greatest sporting achievements of all time.
If you have any opinions on your own 'underrated sporting achievements' I'd love to hear them. Please leave them in the comments below and I'll reply to each one.
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