BENGALURU: Chinese Taipei tennis player Chun-hsin Tseng had a dream run in 2018, winning two junior Grand Slams in a year. The youngster clinched the Wimbledon and French Open junior titles and also finished runner-up at the junior Australian Open. In the process he joined an elite list of players with two junior slams in one season, comprising Thomas Enqvist, Andy Roddick, Pat Cash, Ivan Lendl among others.
With such confidence behind his back, there were high hopes from Tseng, who turned professional in 2019, but the transition was not a smooth one. The outbreak of Covid-19 did not help him. He did not play for almost half a year and was just limited to training. Even when he started to travel abroad for competitions, it was not easy.
"I struggled due to Covid (break). I could not play well. With various failures, I started watching videos of my match and figured out the problem. At that time I was quite slow. After that, I started to become aggressive and faster. I started to know myself better and gradually learned how to win. Now, it is getting better," said Chun-hsin, who has shown progress in the last few months.
The 20-year-old, who qualified for the Australian Open 2022, clinched his maiden Challenger title late last year in Portugal. He has also played some impressive tennis to reach the quarterfinals of the ongoing Bengaluru Open after defeating Hugo Grenier of France in straight sets (6-1, 6-4) at the KSLTA Stadium on Wednesday.
Tseng, who initially started playing tennis with his father as a five-year-old, is thankful to his parents for what he is today. His parents had a roadside food stall, selling a traditional fruit snack, at Lehua night market in Taipei (it is closed now due to mother's hand injury), but as their son turned his attention to tennis, savings from the business were also used for abroad training expenses. His country's tennis federation also helped with finances.
"At the beginning, it was very tough. My father (parents) was struggling. At that time we did not have much money with us. I could not go out to practice as it involved a lot of money. The federation also helped me at that time, " said Tseng, who ranked World No 190.
Indian pairs shine
On a day when many seeded single players exited Bengaluru Open, the doubles top seed from India Jeevan Nedumchezhiyan and Purav Raja beat Borna Gojo and Dimitar Kuzmanov 6-4, 6-7 (2), 10-8 to advance.
The other Indian pairs — Saketh Myneni/Ramkumar Ramanathan and N Sriram Balaji/Vishnu Vardhan — also won their respective matches on Wednesday.