Former French Open tennis champion Michael Chang is so confident of the future for the women's game in China, he is opening a school at Mission Hills Golf Club.
Chang, 35, visited the Shenzhen club yesterday with his father, Joe, to announce that talented youngsters will be trained to compete to the highest level.
Mission Hills has a 51-court tennis centre where some of China's national team spend their winter months in training.
Chang said he had been approached to open an academy by clubs across the mainland, but chose Mission Hills for the facilities. 'My dad and my brother, Carl, came here in 1996 when Dr David Chu [Mission Hills chairman] expressed an interest in wanting to start something,' said Chang. 'We looked into the possibility then but because I was on tour at that time it was just too difficult.
'I'm going to spend quite a lot of time here. We want to work with the best young players from all parts of China. This has been a passion of mine for quite some time, and working with Peng Shuai is somewhat of an extension of that,' said Chang, who will find plenty of synergy with the 10 golf courses at Mission Hills as he plays off a handicap of 1.8.
Washington-based Chang, who retired from competitive tennis in 2003, is now helping Peng, 21, take her game to the next level. The pair started to work together at Indian Wells in March, and Chang has missed attending only a few of her matches since then.
'I travel with her to pretty much all of her matches in the US and I also went to Wimbledon with her. She's now playing in Toronto and getting ready for the US Open,' he said.