Chang Doesn’t Spend Time Worrying About Money

So far this year, Michael Chang has won $400,402, so at 17, he seems to have no trouble making money.

Spending it, that’s the problem.

“I really don’t have anything to spend it on,” Chang said Tuesday during a satellite news conference. “I don’t have a driver’s license, so I can’t buy a car yet. I don’t have a girlfriend (and) if you don’t have a girlfriend, you don’t spoil her--that’s a huge chunk right there.

“The only money that I might spend is probably on aquariums, aquarium fish and aquarium stuff.”

Chang also is an avid fisherman, but as for buying his own gear, well, because of his growing fame, that’s one duty he doesn’t have to tackle anymore.

“It seems like everywhere I go, people are giving me fishing stuff,” he said.

Just a little over two months ago in Paris, Chang earned $290,752 for winning the French Open and he has another shot at a lot more. The U.S. Open begins next week at Flushing Meadow, N.Y., where Chang made the round of 16 last year at 16. If that was mathematically correct, it was also profitable.

“I really don’t have a need for money at the moment,” he said. “Sometimes it’s kind of weird. People always say, ‘God, you got all that money, what do you do with it?’ I don’t know, I give it to my dad and I let him do whatever he wants with it, you know?”

To tide him over, Chang reportedly receives a monthly allowance of $100.

“Money is not one of those things that really appeals to me,” Chang said. “Every time I touch money, I wash my hands because it’s dirty . . . so basically to me, money is just a piece of paper.”