Hyeon Chung

[Kamileki]

[Kamileki]

[Del Fed]

Chung Earns Confidence Boosting Win In Vienna

Spoiler:

Hyeon Chung earned a confidence boosting victory on Tuesday to hand Milos Raonic his second straight first-round exit at the Erste Bank Open.

The 23-year-old South Korean worked his way to a 6-4, 7-5 victory over one hour and 44 minutes, withstanding a late comeback from Raonic in the second set.

The South Korean won the inaugural 2017 Next Gen ATP Finals title in Milan, but was sidelined this year for six months due to a back injury and returned in July. With his sixth tour-level victory of 2019, Chung will now play Andrey Rublev or Felix Auger-Aliassime in the Vienna second round.

World No. 139 Chung broke Raonic’s serve in the opening games of each set – both times courtesy of Raonic forehand errors. Chung led 4-2 in the second set, before Raonic won three consecutive games — moving Chung around the court to break to love in the eighth game.

Raonic could not convert one set point on Chung’s serve at 5-4, Ad-Out, when Chung hit a forehand approach winner. Raonic lost 10 of the next 14 points.

https://www.atptour.com/en/news/chung-r ... 19-tuesday

[Kamileki]

[Damian]

2019 w liczbach:

Ranking: 129
Bilans meczów: 6-8
Tytuły: 0
Finały: 0
Zarobki: $391,115

[DUN I LOVE]

2 lata po największym wyniku w karierze (półfinał) Hyeon zaczyna swój udział w Australian Open 2020 od kwalifikacji.

[Kamileki]

[Damian]

The Day Chang Stunned Lendl At Roland Garros: 'It Was About Survival'

Spoiler:

Relive the classic match with exclusive insight from Chang's coach
Editor's Note: But for the COVID-19 pandemic, Roland Garros would now be underway. During the next two weeks ATPTour.com will look back on memorable matches and happenings at the clay-court Grand Slam, which tournament organisers are now hoping to stage in September.

Jose Higueras had mixed feelings as he watched his charge, Michael Chang, hit an underhand serve against top seed Ivan Lendl in the fourth round of Roland Garros in 1989. At the time, the coach didn’t realise that would become one of the most iconic moments in tennis history. Higueras didn’t even know if Chang would finish the match.

“It was about survival,” Higueras told ATPTour.com. “You do whatever you need to do to survive another day.”

Chang, a 17-year-old American, was competing at the clay-court Grand Slam for just the second time. He’d lost only one set en route to the Round of 16, including a 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 win against Pete Sampras. But his next opponent, Lendl, was a three-time Roland Garros champion, who was 36-2 on the season.

Lendl’s aggressive baseline game overpowered the teen for the first two sets, which the World No. 1 earned 6-4, 6-4.

“At the beginning, Michael was not too comfortable with the whole thing, competing on the centre court and playing Ivan Lendl,” Higueras said. “But as the match went on, he got more comfortable and started playing better and better, and Ivan got a little nervous. As the match got closer, Ivan got a little more tense, and Michael was just doing what he normally did, which was playing until the match was over.”

ATP Heritage: Milestones. Records. Legends.

Higueras first began working with Chang towards the end of 1988, and he remembers a conversation they had about the American’s clay potential.

“I said, ‘Michael, I think if you keep working hard, you have a good chance to do well at the French Open in a few years,’” Higueras recalled. “He said, ‘Why not next year?’”

That same attitude carried into his match against Lendl. Chang was down, but Lendl didn’t eliminate his belief. Lendl’s power wasn’t intimidating him, either.

“Michael was a great counter-puncher, so he liked the pace. He used his speed well and was very smart,” Higueras said. “One thing he improved a lot in not a very long time was the fact that he used his speed to be more offensive. We all know Ivan had a big forehand, so it was pretty straightforward, really: He just played his forehand to his backhand.

“It was more about how Ivan was going to play, in my opinion, than how Michael was going to play. Ivan was going to be in charge of more of the points and dictating more. Once Michael got his teeth into the match, Ivan got pretty tense and that was a big equaliser for the whole thing.”

As Chang raised his level in the third and fourth sets, he began cramping. At the same time, Lendl’s level dropped, and Chang was on the comeback trail.

Chang earned an immediate break in the fifth set, but the cramps began to take their toll. Lendl kept clawing back each deficit he faced, but the American would rush the net, throw up pace-less balls high over the net, and do anything to keep the top seed from gaining rhythm or confidence.

Jose Higueras on Michael Chang

At 4-3, 15/30, Chang was desperate. His legs were locking up, and he hit the only underhand serve of his career. Lendl approached the net, and Chang hit a forehand pass that his opponent couldn’t handle.

“Michael is a great competitor, and he was going to try to do whatever he could, anything legal, to actually win the match,” Higueras said. “What was going through my head was that Ivan was pretty tight.”

Higueras thought it was a good sign to see how tight Lendl was, but he wasn’t convinced the cramps wouldn’t defeat Chang.

“Sometimes you can get cramps and you can fight your way through,” Higueras said. “But sometimes it hits you very hard and you cannot play anymore.”

Fans around the world, including former NBA superstar Dirk Nowitzki, who was 10 at the time, were on the edge of their seats as Chang won that point and eventually held that service game,.

“It was fantastic. I think everybody was rooting for Michael at the time because he was the underdog. You could see how exhausted he was at the end. That was sort of his breakthrough,” Nowitzki told ATPTour.com. “Everybody always roots for the underdog, so I wanted Michael to win, even though I liked Ivan Lendl growing up.”

Lendl couldn’t take advantage of Chang’s cramps. In the next game, on match point, the teen stood just feet from the service box to return the World No. 1’s second serve.

"I just stood up there and tried to bother his concentration,” Chang said. “I just tried to do whatever I could."

Lendl double faulted, and Chang triumphed 4-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3.

"Give him credit," Lendl said. "It's very difficult, if not impossible, to play with cramps."

Jose Higueras on Michael Chang

The job wasn’t done, as Chang was only into the quarter-finals. He defeated Ronald Agenor and Andrei Chesnokov in four sets each to set a final showdown against World No. 3 Stefan Edberg, who at the time was a three-time major champion.

“I actually thought he had a really good chance of winning that match because of the gamestyles,” said Higueras, adding Chang liked hitting against a target, and Edberg frequented the net.

Chang rallied from two sets to one down to become the youngest male Grand Slam champion in history, beating the Swede 6-1, 3-6, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.

“That’s really when [the Lendl match] became a bigger thing for him. The match became a lot more important once he won the French Open,” Higueras said. “We wouldn’t talk about this as much if he didn’t win.”

https://www.atptour.com/en/news/chang-l ... -flashback

[Damian]

Chung Kicks Off Restart; Wawrinka Seeks Second Straight Prague Title

Spoiler:

Korean and Swiss headline at Prague II


On Saturday, former World No. 3 Stan Wawrinka lifted his first trophy of the 2020 season. The Swiss kicked off the ATP Challenger Tour restart by claiming his first piece of silverware in three years at the I.CLTK Prague Open by Moneta.

Wawrinka was battle-tested all week, earning three straight wins from a set down before defeating Aslan Karatsev in the championship. With the goal of building confidence and match rhythm on the court, following the five-month COVID-19 hiatus, the 35-year-old is not wasting any time. He is back in action this week in the Czech capital, competing at the second clay-court Challenger 125 event there.

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Held at the TK Spoje Praha, the RPM Prague Open features Wawrinka as its leading man, accompanied by second seed Pierre-Hugues Herbert and the restart debut of 2017 Next Gen ATP Finals champion Hyeon Chung. This is Chung's second tournament of the year after suffering a hand injury in January.

View Prague Draw

Wawrinka will open his campaign against qualifier Goncalo Oliveira on Tuesday. He could face either 15th seed Botic van de Zandschulp or Czech qualifier Marek Gengel in the Round of 16, with a potential quarter-final clash against former World No. 10 Ernests Gulbis looming large.

Wawrinka

Also in the top half of the draw is fourth seed Yannick Maden and 2020 wins leader Arthur Rinderknech. Rinderknech lifted the doubles trophy on Saturday with Herbert. The Frenchman could face 22-year-old Brit Jay Clarke in what would be a blockbuster Round of 16 encounter.

In the bottom half, Herbert opens against either countryman Elliot Benchetrit or fellow veteran Ruben Bemelmans. Chung will kick off his restart against Zdenek Kolar. Other Top 10 seeds in their half of the draw include No. 5 Kimmer Coppejans, No. 6 Martin Klizan and No. 9 Sebastian Ofner.

Meanwhile, there is plenty of young Czech talent on display. Last week, 20-year-old Michael Vrbensky reached his first Challenger semi-final, before falling to Wawrinka. He faces another tall task this week, opening against Maden. Tomas Machac, aged 19, won his maiden title in Koblenz, Germany, earlier this year. He will battle former World No. 33 Robin Haase on Tuesday. And fellow 19-year-old Jonas Forejtek will kick off his bid against Ofner.

https://www.atptour.com/en/news/prague- ... inka-chung

[Kamileki]

2020 w liczbach:

Ranking: 161
Bilans meczów: 0-0
Tytuły: 0
Finały: 0
Zarobki: $24,409

[DUN I LOVE]

Trzeci kolejny sezon w plecy. Od czasów kwalifikacji do jesiennego RG nie wyszedł na kort Koreańczyk.

[Lucas]

2021 w liczbach:

Ranking: -
Bilans meczów: 0-0
Tytuły: 0
Finały: 0
Zarobki: -

[DUN I LOVE]

Czyli co? Koksiarz?

@Barty @Robertinho

[Robertinho]

Czyli co? Koksiarz?

@Barty @Robertinho

Ktoś ewidentnie tak uważa, jeśli ta absurdalna liczba kontroli jest prawdziwa.

[Bombardiero]

[Damian]

[DUN I LOVE]

Może za 2 lata spróbuje w singlu. Długo się leczą ci Azjaci, jak Yibing Wu np.

[Damian]

5) Chung Partners Kwon On Return: This week’s event in Seoul will see the return of a former Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals winner after an extended injury layoff.

Hyeon Chung, champion in Milan in 2017 and a semi-finalist at the 2018 Australian Open, will team with fellow South Korean Kwon on the doubles court in front of their home fans. The former World No. 19 Chung has not played a competitive match since October 2020 due to injury.

https://www.atptour.com/en/news/seoul-s ... eport-2022

[Damian]

Chung: ‘I’m Just Happy To Play Again’

Spoiler:

South Korean returning to action for the first time in two years
There are three ATP Tour events this week with many of the world’s biggest stars in action. One player in the Eugene Korea Open Tennis Championships doubles draw sticks out: Hyeon Chung.

The South Korean, who won the 2017 Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals and advanced to the Australian Open semi-finals less than three months later, has not competed since September 2020 due to a back injury. Chung is making his return on the doubles court alongside countryman Soonwoo Kwon.

“Due to my injuries, I needed to [stay on the] sideline over the [past] few years and then finally I made it back on court again,” Chung said. “I’m feeling just so happy to play tennis again.”

According to Chung, his lower back injury required constant treatment and rehab, which is why he was unable to compete since Roland Garros qualifying in 2020. He only played six matches at all levels that year.

“I had to treat it and rehab, treat and rehab all the time,” Chung said. “Then [it was] training, training, training and rehab for like [the whole] two years.”

ATP WTA LIVE | Follow the Pepperstone ATP Race To Turin In Real Time

Although Chung is only playing doubles this week, he is soon making his singles return. The South Korean plans to play on the ATP Challenger Tour in his home country in the coming weeks and see how that goes.

“[My] first goal for sure is [to suffer] no injuries, so staying healthy,” Chung said. “This is my first competition after two years, so I don’t want to rush, I don’t want to push too hard.”

It is not long ago Chung was one of the fastest-rising players on the ATP Tour. After his run to the Australian Open semi-finals in 2018, he soon reached a career-high No. 19 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings. Now he does not have a ranking at all.

But Chung, who has missed the competition the most during his time away, is remaining patient and enjoying this moment as he begins his journey back towards the sop of the sport.

“[There are] many feelings coming together, like happiness and a little bit nervousness because I didn’t play for two years,” Chung said. “But I’m just happy to play again, especially at home where I live in Seoul.”

https://www.atptour.com/en/news/chung-s ... 22-feature

[Damian]