Mumbai: Since April, Hyeon Chung has spent most of his time playing tennis in the Futures tour. It is the lowest level of professional tennis which is often used as a springboard for budding players to launch themselves into the upper divisions.
It is also where journeymen and injured stars come to try and rebuild their careers. Just like Chung.
This is the same Hyeon Chung that had won the inaugural ATP Next Gen Finals in 2017 in Milan. And a few months later, at the 2018 Australian Open, went on a run to the semi-final that saw him beat Daniil Medvedev, fourth seed Alexander Zverev, and his idol Novak Djokovic. From reaching as high as world No.19, recurring back injuries saw him fall drastically down the ranking ladder beyond the 500s.
He has longed to get back to the biggest stages of tennis where he once played and belonged.
On Friday, at the Olympic Tennis Court in Seoul, in front of a packed crowd, Chung took a mighty big step in the right direction for both himself and his country, as South Korea are now on the verge of making it to the Davis Cup Finals.
Chung came from a set down to beat Sumit Nagal 2-6, 6-4, 7-5 in a marathon contest that lasted three hours and six minutes, to double Korea’s lead in the second round Davis Cup Qualifier tie.
“I had to make sure that the fans saw the game that they wanted to see,” world No.549 Chung said after the match.
The win came a few hours after Soonwon Kwon also overcame a deficit to beat Dhakshineswar Suresh 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.
There is a certain fan following that Chung commands within his country’s tennis circles. Several fans carried cardboard cutouts of his face as they watched Korea’s third highest ranked singles player take to the court, just months after he won the deciding rubber against Argentina in the first round of the Qualifiers.
It did not start well for him, however, as Nagal raced to a 4-0 lead before eventually closing out the first set 6-2.
After the break however, Chung started to hit with more purpose. His shots were aimed more into the angles than in the first set and he started to move Nagal around the court. Still, it was Nagal who got the break of serve to go up 4-3, only for the Korean star to comeback immediately and win the next three games on the trot to secure the set.
Using that momentum, Chung was up 4-1 in the third, but Nagal clawed his way back into the match.
As the rally-lengths increased, both players showed signs of fatigue – more though from Nagal.
“(In the second set) I felt more comfortable because I could see that my opponent was trying to finish the game earlier. I was able to see that. When I got my first break, he looked really tired, and that gave me the motivation to not give up.”
With Nagal serving to stay in the match at 5-6 in the third, Chung got the decisive break that secured the match and gave Korea the 2-0 lead.
Korea could win the tie on Saturday if they win the doubles match, or any of the reverse singles matches (India will need to win all three to clinch the tie).
The winner will secure a spot in the Finals, where the best eight teams in the world will compete for the title in Bologna, Italy – just a few hours away from where Chung had made his first breakthrough in 2017.
Now, as he has taken Korea to the verge of somewhere they have never been before, he will hope to get back to where he once was.
