Hyeon Chung is in line to become just the third South Korean man to contest the singles main draw at Wimbledon. We caught up with the former junior finalist…
The eyes of South Korea were fixed upon the Melbourne Sports Precinct on the opening Thursday of this year’s Australian Open. But it wasn’t the tennis that had Korean families gathered around TV sets from Busan in the south to Seoul in the north. It was football, or to be more precise, the Asian Cup.
That night inside AAMI Park, which lies adjacent to Rod Laver Arena, thousands of fans decked out in red watched on skittishly as the nation scraped past Uzbekistan, scoring twice in extra time. The tournament captured the imagination of the Korean public and by the time the Taeguk Warriors reached the final more than 20 million people back home were kicking every ball.
For the country that hosted the 2002 World Cup, football rules all. And for Hyeon Chung, one of tennis’ rising stars, this may not be a bad thing.
A week earlier, across Olympic Boulevard on the far reaches of Court 15, Chung was attempting to carve out his own piece of South Korean sporting history. But with a man-and-a-dog type crowd in attendance and no rolling cameras he came up just short of a spot in the Australian Open main draw, falling to Sweden’s Elias Ymer in the final round of qualifying. There was little fanfare surrounding the occasion. After all South Korea isn’t known for its tennis heritage and as Chung himself says, the sport isn’t popular back home. But for the teenager, his second attempt at qualifying for a major was progress. The rise had already begun, this was simply just another step up a very steep ladder.
Growing Up
In many ways Chung’s path into tennis was a conventional one. His father was a tennis player – he currently coaches the sport in high school – and rackets and balls were strewn around their family home in Suwon, a walled city 30km south of Seoul. Like most inquisitive toddlers, Chung picked up a racket one day and started taking the first of what would become thousands of swings, each one more refined than the last.
With his older brother Hong – a left-hander – for company, the pair fashioned a mini battleground in front of the house – their very own Centre Court. Between play the brothers would glance at the living room window with their imaginations flickering images of Roger and Rafa back at them. “We saw them playing games on TV,” remembered Chung. “We would pretend to be them.”
Then there is the unconventional portion of the younger Chung’s story. At aged seven weak eyesight began to inhibit him so his parents brought him to a doctor. In a peculiar twist of faith experts recommended setting time aside to look at the colour green. And so, with the prescription glasses which have become his trademark, Chung started playing tennis seriously, zoning in on the aluminous fuzzy ball.
He hasn’t taken his eyes off it since.
The Breakthrough
Since his loss to Ymer in Australia Chung has become one of the stories of 2015. The youngster, who turned 19 last month, has won three Challenger titles on three different continents in Burnie (Australia), Savannah (USA) and on home soil in Busan, bringing his career haul to four.
He also broke ground on the ATP World Tour. His first victory came against veteran Marcel Granollers on his tour debut in Miami, the second over Facundo Arguello in Houston. His maiden encounter with a top 10 player, which he related to an out-of-body experience, was a 6-3, 6-4 loss to Tomas Berdych in Miami.
Chung’s ranking has soared in recent months. After beginning the year at No.173 he has climbed more than 100 places, hitting a career-high No.69 last month. He is now the third highest-ranked teenager, after world No.41 Borna Coric and No.69 Thanasi Kokkinakis.
To put his young career into context, Chung is just the second player from his country to feature in the ATP top 100. The other being Hyung-Taik Lee, who peaked at No. 36 in 2007. Furthermore, only two South Korean women have ranked in the top 100: Cho Yoon-Jeong (No.45 on July 14, 2003) and Park Sung-Hee (No. 57 on September 25, 1995).
I look up to Djokovic because his play is fantastic and he is very strong mentally
The Gamestyle
The Taegeuk symbol sits front and centre of the South Korean flag. In its simplest form the emblem represents perfect harmony and balance and is derived from the philosophy of yin and yang. In taekwondo, Taegeuk refers to patterns of defense and attack.
It’s somewhat apt then that Chung’s game mirrors the flag that stands beside his name. In the absence of a standout weapon, Chung brings a balanced game to the court. His flat, unorthodox groundstrokes are punishing. His backhand is his strength; he drops the racket head – a la Thomas Johansson – before accelerating through with fantastic speed, and he can change direction with ease. Like all good tennis players he possesses that ability to predict the future on court, anticipating shots like he’s gazing into a crystal ball. And he slides around hard courts like only good movers can, allowing him to switch from defense to attack with the flick of a wrist.
Here’s his gamestyle in his own broken English: “I try to move more steps than my competitor does and I try to do my best, which I feel are my strengths.” To him, despite his innate talent, his work ethic is his most valuable asset.
He adds: “I look up to Djokovic because I think his play is fantastic and he is very strong mentally.”
The Future
Early signs suggest Chung has the mental strength – that all-important capacity to forget the past – to launch an assault on the top of the men’s game. But predicting the future in tennis is fast-becoming a fool’s game.
As he takes the natural next step onto the ATP World Tour, his success will depend on the perfect storm of talent, hard work, learning from defeats and luck. If he can tick all four boxes then South Korea may just begin to sit up and take note. And as tennis fans in Japan and China will testify, it takes just one player to get a nation talking.