Michael Chang looked beaten. He couldn't hold serve, and he couldn't stop Stefan Edberg. But he never quit trying.
"I've heard of people coming back from 6-love, 5-love, 15-40 and still coming back to win matches," Chang said. "I always think, `Well, if they can do it, I might as well give it a try.' "Chang looked helpless in the second set but rallied to beat Edberg 7-5, 0-6, 6-4 to win the ATP Championship Sunday.
"I don't feel that it's my right to abuse the talent that I've been given," Chang said. "I think I have to allow myself opportunities and chances if I'm down, to come back.
"There always is that little bit of hope, no matter how much or how little it could be."
Chang had been in the same predicament Saturday in a semifinal match against Andre Agassi. Chang won the first set 7-5, then nausea and dehydratation overtook him and he lost the second 1-6.
Agassi seemed unstoppable. But Chang refused to quit, doggedly chasing every shot as Agassi ran him from side to side.
Finally, as on Sunday against Edberg, Chang's unerring, methodical, almost mechanical returns frustrated Agassi and forced him to commit errors.
Chang won the third set 7-5 to advance to the final, and now he's won three times on the ATP Tour this year, equaling a career high. He also won in Jakarta, Indonesia, and Osaka, Japan.
Touring pros won't say that playing Chang is frustrating, that he won't concede points that most players give up on. Edberg even said he enjoys playing Chang, because Chang makes him be so precise.
"He just runs down a lot of balls," Edberg said. "I love playing him.
"I mean, he makes you work really hard and you get to do everything against him because he's going to run down everything.
"He comes in occasionally, but you have to make the points out there . . . you have to hit the winners."
Chang figures he got his persistence from his mother. He feels strongly about his moral obligation to scrap for every point.
"It's important in tennis, but I think it's even more important when you think about life situations," Chang said.
"I think in life you're always having to be persistent to be the best . . . In any kind of career that you have, you have to be persistent at it, you have to work at it. Things don't come naturally.
"I always felt that God gives each person a certain amount of talent, but you have to do your share as well. You have to put the hard work in there. You have to put in the persistence and everything else to try to become the best, no matter what you do."
Chang said he decided to go for broke after playing poorly in the second set Sunday. And to be persistent.
"He (Edberg) was just controlling everything and I had to change things around," said Chang, whose win moved him up two spots to seventh in the world in the computer rankings.
"I decided if I was going to go out losing, I'd rather go out losing by going for my shots and playing the game I want to play. I think I put a little bit more pressure on Stefan to come in on some balls, and I think a few more errors started to sneak into his game."
Edberg, 27, had an 11-3 career record against Chang prior to Sunday's match, but most of the wins came in 1990-91 when Edberg was the world's top-ranked player.
However, Chang, 21, had beaten Edberg in their final meeting of 1991 and pressed the Swede to five sets before losing in last year's U.S. Open.
Chang broke Edberg only twice Sunday, once in the first set and once in the third. But that was enough.
"I guess he was a couple of points better than I was today," said Edberg, who won the ATP Championship in 1987 and 1990.
Edberg also was runner-up in doubles. He and Henrik Holm lost to Andre Agassi and Petr Korda 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 on Sunday.