Taiwan Today

Taiwanese tennis player Chang Kai-chen beat the world's top ranked women's player, Dinara Safina of Russia, at the Pan Pacific Women's Tennis Tournament in Tokyo, Japan in late September 2009. She took advantage of a break in her schedule before the OEC Cup Taiwan Ladies Tennis Open to be interviewed on radio Oct. 17. Her father, Chang Jin-lai, and her mother, You Mei-juan, accompanied her to the Asia FM 92.7 radio station for the interview. There, Chang recalled her emotions right after she had beaten Safina, saying that to this day she is still in a great mood because of that victory. The trio also expressed their thanks to the Land Bank of Taiwan for their long-term funding and support of Chang, including providing Zhang with necessary nutrients and plane tickets to attend tournaments overseas. The junior Chang said that she was extremely happy about defeating the world's top women's player because it had made everything she had trained for worthwhile. Although Chang was defeated in several contests after beating Safina, she said she does not feel frustrated, adding that if she hadn't been so exhausted then, she could have performed better on the court. Chang plans to compete in two warm-up competitions prior to the Australian Open next year, saying that she plans to approach these matches with a normal attitude and will not put any extra pressure on herself. She also expressed her confidence in winning at least some of these matches. With regard to the enormous amount of NT$10 million that her family has spent on nurturing her talent, Chang said that she is especially in debt to her mother, who works the whole year selling fish, leaving home early in the morning and returning home late at night, and to this point she still has not even flown in a plane or travelled overseas. The tennis prodigy said she hopes she can start winning more matches as soon as possible so that she can use the prize money to take her mother overseas to watch her compete.