Chung Hyeon receives hero's welcome

Tennis star Chung Hyeon answers questions from reporters after landing at Incheon International Airport on Sunday at the end of his memorable two-week run at the Australia Open tournament in Melbourne. He became the first Korean to reach the semifinal of a Grand Slam. / Yonhap

He was lauded for enormous potential

By Kang Hyun-kyung

Chung Hyeon received the warmest homecoming from hundreds of people at Incheon International Airport on Sunday after he returned from his memorable two weeks at the Australia Open tournament.

Grinning to the crowd, he said he felt like he returned home with a great achievement.

“Ahead of the tournament, I thought I could do it at some point in my life. But I didn’t know that day would come so soon,” he said. “I hope many people, including tennis players, can build hope and confidence through me.”

Chung, 21, didn’t hide his ambition for future Grand Slams. “I’m ambitious and would like to make the world’s top 10. I will work hard to achieve a higher goal. I’d like to prove myself,” he said.

At the Australian Open, he took a step back to move forward in the coming Grand Slams.

His fearless march at the tournament ended sadly in the semifinals as a blister on his left foot stopped him from continuing in the game.

His Melbourne saga, however, showed his journey to rise atop in Grand Slams has just begun.

Chung’s new coach Neville Godwin said he saw strong potential in Chung when the two met for a second time at the French Open in Roland Garros.

“He had something special,” Godwin said. “He was raw but he had the look of a great athlete. He moved well and was a great ball striker.”

Godwin said Chung’s epic games at the Australian Open surprised a lot of people who didn’t know him. “However, I believed he was capable of winning every match in its own right,” he said.

Second-seeded Roger Federer, who played against Chung in their semifinal match, said he could see why Chung defeated the players whose world rankings were a lot higher than his.

“He has great composure and I think we’re going to see a lot more for him,” Federer said during an on-court interview with former tennis star Jim Courier after the game. “Top 10 for sure. The rest, I don’t know. I don’t want to put too much pressure on him. I think he’s going to be a great player.”

At the Australian Open, Chung was a rising star and one of the most-talked-about players for his stunning performances.

Hours before Chung’s semifinal match against Federer, a photo was posted on the Australian Open Twitter account. In the vintage photo taken at an exhibition game in Seoul on Nov. 21, 2006, Chung, who was then a fourth grader in elementary school, sat in the front row along with other ball boys. Rafael Nadal and Federer were in the photo along with Koreans. It was Chung’s first encounter with the world’s top-tiered tennis players.

Born into a tennis-playing family, Chung was ushered onto a tennis court by his father Chung Seok-jin after an eye doctor recommended the boy look at the color green to improve his weak eyesight.

The older Chung, a tennis coach at Samil Technical High School in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, didn’t want his young son to pursue tennis as a career. But the boy liked playing tennis. The little Chung spent most of his time playing tennis.

In an interview, his father said his son had the drive to win, citing this as a key reason behind his rise at the Grand Slam.

The world’s 58th-ranked Chung surpassed one of his role models -- Novak Djokovic of Serbia. Earlier, he said Nadal, Federer and Djokovic are the three heroes he has admired. Chung defeated Djokovic 3-0 in the round of 16 to advance to the quarterfinals and then cruised into the semifinals after routing Tennys Sandgren of the United States.

Chung’s opponent in his semifinal match was defending champion Federer, one of the greatest players of all time. The two had never played each other before.

Losing the first set 1-6 against the Swiss maestro, Chung retired in the second set amid the top-ranked player’s 5-2 lead as a blister on his left foot worsened even after he received medical treatment.

“Before giving it up, there were numerous thoughts in my mind,” Chung later said in a Twitter message. “And I came to the conclusion if I could not pull together 100 percent of my strength in front of the crowds packed in the stadium and the great player, it’s better to quit.”

He posted a photo of his foot having the debris of the blister. He said he had the blister treated before he played against Djokovic. And he also had injections to relieve the pain before he played against Tennys Sandgren in their quarterfinal match. The blister went from bad to worse as he continued to play.

Chung said he learned a lot through the Australia Open. “I know some great players spoke highly about me. I’m going to try to prove they were right,” he said.

Chung became an inspiration for the Korean public. Kim Yu-kyoum, a professor at Seoul National University, said Chung infused “a can-do spirit” in the public.

“Before Chung, tennis was not a sport in which Koreans excelled. But his cruising into the semifinals showed Koreans they can make it.”

The viewer rating of Chung’s semifinal match topped 10 percent, which is much higher than the average ratings of cable TV programs at the same time which hover between 1 percent and 3 percent.

Chung’s foot became the most searched topic on the nation’s largest internet portal Naver on Saturday, a day after the epic game.

The Australian Open coincided with a North Korean delegation visiting South Korea to prepare cultural events for the PyeongChang Olympics. The first unified Olympic team in women’s ice hockey drew a media frenzy as North Korean athletes joined the South Korean hockey team for training on Thursday, a day before the semifinal game between Chung and Federer. But the political event was outshone by Chung’s Melbourne saga.