‘Professor’ Chung triggers tennis resurgence in homeland

MELBOURNE, Australia — From being practically unknown in South Korea a week ago, Chung Hyeon has quickly gained superstar status in his homeland with a fairytale run to the Australian Open semifinals that has raised the profile of tennis to new levels in the country.

Lee Hyung-taik was the last of the two Koreans to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam when he made the last 16 at the US Open in 2007.

World No 58 Chung, who won the ATP’s Next Gen event for the world’s top young players last year, has already gone two steps further and will take on defending champion Roger Federer in Friday’s semifinal.

Having defeated Novak Djokovic in earlier rounds, 19-time Grand Slam champion Federer is another opponent the bespectacled 21-yearold grew up idolizing.

“The thing is that Chung has grown up watching how outstanding players like Federer and Djokovic play, it is an honor for him to compete against Federer,” Chung’s mother Kim Young-mi told South Korean television channel JTBC.

Back home, the Korea Tennis Association is making arrangements for around 1,000 people to watch the match at Seoul High School and cheer for Chung, who was introduced to tennis by his parents in a bid to improve his poor eyesight.

“We haven’t held an event like this before, but we wanted to commemorate Chung’s remarkable performance at the Australian Open,” an official from the KTA said.

Nicknamed “Professor” for his scholarly look, Chung has also endeared himself to a whole new legion of fans around the world with his quirky brand of humor, working the crowd with a handflapping celebration like many a showboating NBA player.

After defeating six-time Aussie Open winner Djokovic in the last 16, he wrote in Korean on social media: “You know this is not the end. Mr. Chung will keep moving on!”

After his 6-4, 7-6 (5), 6-3 victory over Tennys Sandgren in Wednesday’s semifinal, he walked toward the camera and picked up a pen to scribble “Chung on fire!” in Korean on the lens.

Chung’s success is already driving sales of tennis products in South Korea.

The country’s leading online auction and shopping mall website Gmarket has seen demand soar for tennis products such as shoes, bags, rackets and balls.

Earlier in the week, sales of every tennis-related product rose 24 percent from a week earlier, with tennis shoes registering the largest increase of 129 percent.

“It is very rare to see an increase in tennis-related products, as it is winter, meaning it is not the tennis season,” Oh Hye-jin, public relations specialist at Gmarket said.

“On our official website, tennis products were placed in the top-10 searched shopping items.

“Since it is unusual to see a boom in tennis products these days, I would say Chung Hyeon played a huge role in the sales increase.”

For some, Chung’s incredible run has also been a welcome break from political issues like a corruption scandal and controversies surrounding next month’s Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.

“I was sick of reading news about ongoing politics issues, but now I feel so happy to hear such good news about Chung which is giving us hope,” one Korean posted on a news story on the internet.

“I wish he does his best in the next game against Federer.”