China's chief tennis official gave a warm welcome yesterday to former French Open champion Michael Chang after the Chinese-American tennis ace revealed his hope to coach nation's top players.

Sun Jinfang, general director of the Administrative Centre of Tennis, said that she would like to see Chang come to China.

"Personally, I welcome him coaching the team here," she said. "He is a symbolic figure on the tennis court, especially for Chinese fans. I know some of our players grew up watching him play on television."

The 34-year-old , commonly referred to as Zhang Depei, has been invited by a local sports channel to be a commentator during the live telecast at the ongoing Masters Cup in Shanghai. He said on Monday evening that he was willing to coach tennis in China, as a team consultant and assistant coach.

However, Sun believes there is a lot of work to be done before they can officially recruit Chang for the national team.

"This is just his initial intention. I haven't received any formal application or call from him," she said. "His mother called me a couple of days ago and told me he wants to get involved in Chinese women's tennis. Of course that's great, but I am waiting for some more substantial steps from Chang himself.

"It's not a sure bet that a great player could be an equally great coach, so I need to see him show us coaching proposals or something like that. I also think he could get in touch with our women's players first to see if the girls like working with their childhood hero. That's very, very important, because we are a whole team, not only one or two individuals."

Chang, however, did some homework for what could be the first job of his coaching career. He spent five weeks improving his Chinese at a mandarin school in Beijing before the Masters Cup and also watched matches played by Li Na and Zheng Jie.

"They are doing great. I mean, they've done something that I couldn't expect them to do when I was playing on the tour," he said. "But they need more improvements, I am sure they are able to get better in the future.

"I am yet to have any specific plan, to coach men's or women's teams or teach kids here. I am not sure, but I believe I am able to do something. Maybe I can bring some more American coaches together with me the next year and see what we can do to help the players in China."

Chang is known as the most influential Chinese-American athlete in the world. He was the youngest French Open champion in history after beating Stefan Edberg in a five-set thriller in the final and was among the very best in the 1990's, along with his compatriots Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras and Jim Courier.

Despite dropping beneath the radar for three years after his 2003 retirement, Chang draws much attention from local fans and media at the Masters Cup, where a full floor of reporters and fans chase him everywhere he goes.

A devout Christian, Chang spends much of his time running the Chang Family Foundation, a charity funded by the prize money he won during a 16-year career.

The foundation works on sports-oriented outreach for local communities in southern California.

(China Daily November 16, 2006)