Pete Sampras vs Michael Chang Extended Highlights | US Open 1996 Final 

Chang was always fun to watch. He had grit never gave up. And he was a very gracious and professional player

I ushered at the LA Open in 1996. Chang played Richard Krajicek in the finals and won. Chang was the fan favorite during the whole tournament. He was also the player that all of the staff and volunteers liked. He was just such a super nice guy.

Pete's backhand was great in this match.

Thank you USTA for classic matches' highlights. Sampras was at his peak, playing very smart and strongly with his big serve, baseline and net games. 96 was also a great year for Michael Chang, already been the finalist of Australian Open earlier that year. Here entering into the final by beating Agassi in straight sets in semi. You have to admire Chang, such a great player and valiant fighter. Even not being able to match Sampras's big serve and attacking game though, Chang still fought tirelessly and valiantly. Credits to both great champions. Going forward hope USTA could post few other us open classic matches' highlights: 92 open final Edberg vs Sampras 92 open semi-final Chang vs Edberg (longest us open match) 93 open quarter-final Chang vs Sampras (a cracking match)

These commentators are obsessed about height.. Chang was seed No.2 so they better talk about game plans and tactics. Here Sampras clearly was executing perfectly what he intended. Getting paid to comment a tennis match and saying only "oh the big guy beats the little guy"is so lame. Did they forgot Chang made it to the final beating taller guys? Height is a thing, talent and work is another.

So much talk about the big 3 these days but watching Sampras when he plays reminds you of how fantastic and what a beautiful player he was. Just a joy to watch. A great competitor but also respectful to his opponent. Also I believe he was an influence to all the great players today.

IN the mid-80s, these two played an exhibition match at The Forum in Inglewood, L.A., as the opening match for an exhibition of a pair of already-famous pros. I was a tennis coach and teaching pro in SoCal, and frequently attending these cool tennis exhibitions. I knew of Chang because my high school team (my first year as varsity coach) lost to his in the first round of CIF team playoffs, but Sampras was not known to me. In that match, Sampras used a two-hand backhand, which was changed to a one-hander soon after. By the way, Chang was the superior player back then, and in that night's exhibition match. In a future exhibition match, again as the opener to the main event, the local Williams sisters faced each other in singles. It was fun to see. Chang had the earlier success, but Sampras gained momentum and never looked back ..... even for his old two-hander. I was a fan of both!

Pete sampras, The reason why I started to like and watch tennis games!!!! ✌🏾

Golden era of Tennis. Some many contenders in the field. Sampras, Jim Courier, Aggasi, Chang, Ivanesevic, Rafter to name few

Hard to believe that the last time two Americans were in the final of the US Open was Pete and Andre 18 years ago.

Excelent highlights. For the next one, please add the score.

Thank you to Sampras n Chang for fuelling my love of tennis enough to be a coach in it. Your games are timeless

Michael Chang was one of the most fit tennis players around. For his height he covered ground taller players have a hard time covering. His stamina was unwavering.

Thx 4 the highlights man... I'm the kind of guy who struggles to watch the whole match so I prefer this way. I really appreciate 😊

I got to spend five days with Chang in 1989 and a week with Sampras in 1988. Chang was quiet and polite and Sampras was a good guy too. The way Sampras stuck the ball so clean was incredible. I didn’t know he was going to become the GOAT for a time.

This U.S. Open match between Sampras and Chang is clear example of how Sampras' topspin backhand has been grossly underrated and underappreciated by tennis fans. His topspin backhand was obviously not as great as Lendl's or Edberg's and it was outshined by his superb running, crosscourt forehand and magnificent serve , but it was still a very solid and very effective aspect of Pete's tennis game!

I would always root for Chang in matches like this, usually to no avail. He did beat Sampras 8 of 20 attempts though, much better than I would have expected.

I remember watching this live on TV. Michael put up a valiant effort. But this was at a time when Pete just had an aura of invincibility around him.

Back to 1996, to keep up with the of highest level of rivalries, Michael Chang has improved his serve (faster & stronger), and try to approach the net more often.That was a huge improvement for him , especially for a small guy. That’s why watching Michael’s play is always full of fun.

2:36 such a smart play. Beautifully constructed. Sampras was such a smart player. Perfect sense of timing.

C'était toujours un plaisir de regarder Sampras jouer, j'adorerais ce joueur. Quant à Chang, c'était un marathonien qui n'abandonnait jamais un point

Enjoyable video. Thanks for letting us relive some memories from growing up watching this in the 1990s. 💯👍

No roids, no fist pumps, no screaming after every point, no looking over at their coach for validation, no grandstanding. Just great tennis from two mature young players.

Le jeu de Sampras c'était magique, du pur offensif. Magnifique.

Sampras saved the year by winning Us Open and ATP Finals and Chang lost two grandslam finals 1996 at AO and Us Open but played the most consistent tennis of his carrier imo.

Just love Sampras wakjing back to his folks like a shy kid.....such innocence, such simplicity....

I like the sound of the ball sounded more real than modern sounds

I always rooted for Chang. But Pete was such a class act, that it was fun to watch this match anyway

Man this bring back memory. I love Sampras but I also love Chang. I idolised both these players when was like 5

Look at how fast the courts and balls are, incomparable to now

A real competitive match and very enjoyable to watch, even after all these years!

What's amazing to me watching this in 2020 is realizing that these same commentators are still working the Grand Slam finals regardless of what network has the TV rights to it.

Man, it was tough being a Chang fan. After the French Open at 17 yrs old, you thought more Slams were in his future.

Chang gave all us short guys hope on the courts he he. I wanted to play like Sampras but added the double handed backhand. I still use both double handed and single handed backhand

Thank you for this! My idol Pete is just beautiful to watch!

I watched this match live. Big Michael Chang fan. Modeled my game after him. He worked so hard and was just “beaten up” by a bigger guy. At 5’5” as quick as I was in the day happened to me more times than I’d want to admit.

Chang was like a stubborn, little programmed robot. Not a great fan of his but he had grit. Sampras was a monster. One of the legends.

I remember watching this in real time. It was a great match for sure but nothing like the battle of the gods that was the 95 US Open final between Sampras and Agassi.

thx for uploading

This is quite a good final. Chang was standing up against the big man who was dominating the men's tennis world.

3:08 what a beautiful backhand by my idol Pete Sampras!

Excelente resumen de dos grandes tenistas americanos. Michael Chang que supo potenciar su tennis y Sampras que demostró porque es un gran campeón

The impeccable sampras backhand.

At the end of it all, Sampras just had too much firepower . Surprisingly, the only time Chang ever defeated Sampras in a Grand Slam was a triple bread-stick in the 2nd round at Roland Garros 1989, which became Chang's tournament so to speak.

In 1996, the US Open experimented in altering the scheduling of the matches and put both the men's and women's finals on the final Sunday. There was a torrential downpour after the women's final which meant that the men's final was delayed until much later in the evening.

Damn I miss these surfaces!

its so good to see tom gullikson celebrating with sampras on the stand, a few months after his identical twin brother, tim, which was pete sampras's coach, died from brain cancer.

Love both these guys boy..usa mens tennis will we ever have two more exciting american guys like this...boy the good old days.

Sampras such an elegant game here, looks so simple. No wonder he was Federers idol 🙂

Quand t'as regardé Sampras et que tu regardes maintenant les marathons du tennis... c'était trop beau de plier le point comme lui. Il y arrivait pas toujours, y avait une forme d'humilité, mais 14 tournois du grand chelem qd m. C'est magnifique le jeu offensif.

Pete Stompass as I used to call him. One of the best ever.

Chang rode the short white tennis shorts train longer than anyone else.

Didn't realize what a strong shot Pete's one hander was; always thought it was a weakness but it was a great shot at least in this match.

Excellent highlights with great quality video for a standard def match. Appreciate you posting this but if you’re going to go through the trouble of editing down to the highlights it would be nice to see the score box in the corner. I know the original footage only periodically showed the scores but I think it’s important to know the score because that sets the context of the point being shown and what is at stake.

Sampras with an 85 Pro staff, and Chang with an extended Prince 106.

Sampras was at his peak here. His groundies were strong on both sides, movement was excellent, serve, everything.

Interesting fact. The racket Chang is using is a racket he helped design with the help of Prince engineers. Since then, Prince went bankrupt, and the naming rights were sold but that particular racket to this day is a collector's racket and is widely used to this day by players all over the world.

Samprass had it all! That said no one...no one had a bigger heart than Michael Chang...NO ONE.

やはりこう見ると、時代と共にテニスのレベルが進化してるのがよくわかる。

Loved the Nike challenge court clothing collection that Sampras is wearing. Classic Vibes.

13:50 "the big guy is beating the little guy" Chang goes on to win the next 6 points in a row... Mary Carillo with another gem

Michael would have reached world number 1 if he had won that match.

My idol growing up Sampras!!

Absolutely Brutal. Pete made it look like he was playing with his little brother, in fairness to Chang, he looked tense and didn't play his best in this match.

Old beautiful tennis. This seemed to be more original, more variety than nowadays.

I loved how Chang gave Lendl fits of frustration!

Y'all tried Pete with that thumbnail

One thing that I've always noticed that when commentators talk about Michael chang they always indirectly demean him. John McEnroe always spoke down about Michael chang his whole career. . Use to call him a Bible beater and always referred to him as short...very condescending always. I lost all respect for McEnroe due to this treatment of Michael chang. Poor treatment

Pete Sampras master of the masters

Ahah ma là on se régalait avec ces deux là a l'époque .ils nous ont offert de beaux match

We often forget how GREAT Pete was. Really no weaknesses.

great serve, movement and forehand for pete.

Loved Mr Chang!

Chang had to face big servers and fast courts in the 90s. If he took the ball early and hit a more penetrating backhand he would have had greater success.

To me, CHANG counters SAMPRAS's high speed serves as no one else did. This man played as NADAL before he appeared in tennis courts. Just being facing SAMPRAS means how good he was. I would enjoy a CHANG vs NADAL match. Respect.

Pete had an underrated backhand.

İ remember his quarterfinal where he barely made it past Alex Corretja while suffering cramps. Had Alex been a gamesman he would have won but as he was a real court gentleman he gave Sampras a break!

I think this match was for the number one ranking.

Pete fue inspiración de muchos grandes después de su reinado, pero no lo divulgan.Why? Era un espectáculo verlo,por lo menos en TV. Gran privilegio de los que pudieron verlo en las canchas.

The problem was not M Chang's height....only because rivaled P Samprad and A Agassi of his era....

Redbox shoes and Prince racquet! We miss those memories 😊

would have been great to see the same match on the same surface as us open 2020 ...

Michael was a badass who punched way above his weight. He just never stood a chance against PETE at the Open

Weird that there is no on-screen score keeping.

3:24 Beautiful BH. Nice finish

"Go McEnroe!" Before Chang's last serve takes the cake. Gosh

It is interesting watching Sampras serve and stay back in these videos from the early to mid 1990s. Then in the videos from 2001 and 2002, he is seve volleying every point, first and second serve, quite a shift in strategy in his later years.

Both guys played very well. Great fun to watch and so much respect for them. Just uncomfortable with the commentator even though it was 1996.

It can be argued that Michael Chang had the fastest court coverage of anyone to ever play the game...

Sampras was a cold bloodied killer on the court...a quality that Federer lacked actually in tight situations..(2019 Wimbledon final etc) When Pete had you back against the wall he kept you there..

Not only Chang got beat-down a@@ whipping by pistol Pete but pummeled down by all three commentators all the way throughout the games!!! LOL....

Sampras was such an elegant and smart player.

Que de bons souvenirs

Those courts were fast af

No moaning, no grunting, just clean silent hits.

i have both them rackets in great condition

3:06 -- Watch this point and notice Pete's incredible crosscourt flat backhand.

Can we just name the US Open center court after Sampras already

Respect Sampras.

Chang was so tight this match.