Prolific pair fall just short of seventh doubles title

Hong Kong’s Eudice Chong and Cody Wong Hong-yi narrowly missed out on a seventh doubles title of 2022 after losing in the final of the ITF W25 tournament in Nottingham.

The women’s doubles duo are now set to go their separate ways for a while, with Chong flying to Paris for a WTA tournament and Wong travelling to Spain for another ITF event.

Chong and Wong lost 7-5, 6-4 in the final to a pair from Australia and Japan, Alana Parnaby and Mana Ayukawa.

“We’ve had a great year playing together so far, and we’re building confidence and experience together.

“We’ll be trying to play in bigger tournaments and work on playing on a bigger stage,” said 26-year-old Chong, who was defeated in straight sets by Danielle Lao of the United States in the singles semi-finals in Nottingham.

Chong and Wong had beaten another Hong Kong pair, Maggie Ng Man-ying and Wu Ho-ching, in a 10-point tiebreaker en route to the final.

“I wish we were in separate halves of the draw, so we could meet in the finals,” Chong said.

“They had a great week ... making the finals of the W15 in Chiangrai, Thailand, and we had to stay very aggressive to close out the match.

“It’s never easy playing against your own teammates, but we had to treat them like any other opponent.”

After nearly 18 months of Covid-19 restrictions and closed-camp training at the Hong Kong Sports Institute, Chong and Wong returned to the tour last October, and have teamed up for 14 events, winning nine titles, with six of them in 2022.

“I’ve had a great few weeks in South Africa and in Nottingham,” said Hong Kong No 1 Chong.

I’m definitely trusting in my ability more and mentally pushing myself to stay very solid and consistent.

“I’m proud of how I’ve been performing, and I’m looking forward to playing some tournaments on clay soon.”

Chong recently reached a career-high ranking of No 306 in singles and 162 in doubles. She also won six ITF doubles titles in 2019 with different partners.

The 20-year-old Wong is now ranked No 540 in singles and 220 in doubles, and was set to compete in the World University Games in Chengdu next month.

With the event’s postponement, she now faces a busy 2023 with two multisport events – the University Games and the Asian Games – both to be held on the mainland in the same year.