But since I already know how to swim, I'm going to build a pool first'."It could be said that fear played a part in Chanda's gravitation to tennis as a five-year-old, but not in the usual sense. "I had fallen asleep in my house, and when I woke up, no one was around and I got kind of scared," she recalls. "Then it came to me, `They are probably outside on the tennis court.' It was like, `Wow, what a relief.' I remember walking out on the court and thinking it was a good place. Everyone was having a good time and I just wanted to be out there."In comparison to some of her American predecessors, notably Tracy Austin, Andrea Jaeger and Jennifer Capriati, the gestation of Rubin's career was hype-free, even though she was ranked No 1 nationally at 12-and-under at the age of 11 and, at 12, was the top female US player aged 14-and- under.That was when she first told her mother, "I wanna go pro," and received a wry smile in response. "I think she had heard that phrase from a couple of the high school boys, who were talking about football and basketball," Bernadette says "We really didn't think she would stick to that idea.
But sure enough, that's what she wanted to do."Rubin was 15 when she did turn professional, at the 1991 US Open. "I knew that I was going to turn pro before going to college because it would have been just too long for me to wait," she says.Although a finalist at her second tournament, in Phoenix, she nevertheless continued with her high school education before travelling on the tour full time. Indeed, she elected to miss the 1993 French Open in order to march with her graduating class at the Episcopal School of Acadiana.By then Rubin's all-court style had established her as a dangerous competitor, one capable of graduating from the Wimbledon junior singles title to the US Open fourth round in 1992.Endeavouring to maintain a healthy balance between professional tennis and life in general, Rubin has earned as much respect for her work in the local and state community - conducting clinics, involving herself with a children's museum, the American Heart Association, Special Olympics causes and wheelchair tennis - as she has been shown for her performances on the court.In 1995, she received the WTA Tour's Most Improved Player Award, and was named the USTA's female Athlete of the Year and became the first tennis player to be selected as the US Olympic Committee's Athlete of the Month. In recognition of this, her home town of Lafayette declared 12 September, 1995, "Chanda Rubin Day".The ITF News observed that "Chanda is making a habit of claiming her own day at the Grand Slam championships".
She certainly did that at Flinders Park, as the National Tennis Centre was known for nine years until the Victoria parliament had the name changed to Melbourne Park on the day after last year's tournament, in order to accentuate the city.Matthew Flinders probably would have approved. After all, Flinders was the English navigator who insisted on calling the continent Australia after it had been named New Holland by the Dutch and New South Wales by Captain Cook.What's in a name? Lafayette was a French general who became a hero of the American cause against the British. And Chanda? A reporter telephoned the family and asked where the name came from and if it was of African origin "We found that very amusing," Bernadette says. "Chanda is an American Indian name, and I got it out of a baby book.". Pete Sampras will be given a stern examination of his readiness for next week's Australian Open when he plays fellow American Michael Chang in the final of a warm-up exhibition event today. Sampras, the top seed in the season's first Grand Slam in Melbourne, which starts on Monday, will try to prevent Chang, second-seeded in the Open, from winning his third Colonial Classic title in a row. Sampras, the world No 1, advanced without hitting a ball at Kooyong yesterday when the world No 4, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, was forced to withdraw because of a broken hand."Michael is a true test to see where I am at," Sampras said of his meeting with the world No 2."He plays very well in Australia and we will see how it goes out there. It's not a Grand Slam final, so I want to make sure I'm hitting the ball well and feeling fit and ready to go on Monday."Chang, who lost to Boris Becker in the Australian Open final last January, beat the German on Thursday in the other semi-final.A fractured bone in Kafelnikov's right hand has forced the Russian to pull out of the Open.