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As a child, Duckhee Lee was discouraged by others to pursue his dreams as a professional tennis player. The 21-year-old South Korean has firmly proved that his opponents were wrong Monday at the Winston-Salem Open by beating Henri Laaksonen 7-6 (4), 6-1, becoming the first deaf player to win a main draw. from the ATP Tour.
"People were making fun of me for my disability. They said I should not play, "said Lee. "It was really hard, but my friends and family helped me in. I wanted to show everyone that I could do it.
"My message to people who are hard of hearing is not to get discouraged. If you make great efforts, you can do anything.
This milestone was celebrated by his peers, who all admire his relentless pursuit to make the most of his potential.
"I beat him a few years ago." After the match, he contacted a Google translator and said, "What are my weaknesses? ", Recalls Tennys Sandgren." For someone who is deaf and does not speak English well at all, putting themselves in this way … I would not do it, it was really cool.
"You will learn a lot about how your opponent hits the ball based on the sound of the shot.If you can not hear it … you must have a crazy skill and talent."
ATP Tour matches are often decided by the smallest of the margins, an unforced error at a crucial moment or a 5: 5 clutch winner in a tie. The players admitted that walking on the ground already giving up the advantage of hearing them was unfathomable.
"If I had to play the helmet, it's incredibly difficult to pick up the speed of the ball, the spinning effects of the racket … We use our ears a lot to make things happen," said Andy Murray. "It's obviously a huge disadvantage, so being able to do what it does is a huge effort."
The fundamental aspects of a tennis game that players take for granted are things that Lee, diagnosed as deaf at two, has never trusted. He can not hear line calls or call the score, forcing him to rely on signals from the referee or his team.
When a malfunctioning 5-1 score in the second set against Laaksonen raised him 40/15 when the score was actually 30/15, Lee was unable to communicate his score question to the chair umpire or to understand the answers of it. The two men found themselves motionless, not knowing how to proceed. A tournament volunteer then lifted three fingers to indicate "30", which he understood.
Read: Lee Overcomes Disability to Succeed (July 2015)
Lee does not know sign language because he was taught to read Korean lips as a child. However, his speech is not always clear for native speakers. During his interview, a tournament volunteer translated the questions in Korean to his fiancée, Soopin, and gave them to Lee. He then responded to Soopin, who clarified the Korean answers to the translator, and the final answer was passed on to local journalists in English.
But Lee's success as a professional has been much more transparent. He played his first event on the ATP Challenger circuit at the age of 14 and has remained a base player at this level for four years. Having played almost exclusively in Asia so far, his blow to the United States has paid off. Before his breakthrough Winston-Salem, he had reached his first ATP Challenger final in nearly three years in June in Little Rock.
"I ate the spaghetti here and I loved it," Lee said smiling. "I think America has a good environment. Everything seems to suit me, so I had fun. "
The party will continue on Tuesday when he meets Hubert Hurkacz, the third seed. But if this opportunity is the most important of his young career when he hopes to soon rank among the top 100 ATP ranking, his approach will remain the same.
"I will go to the match with the same attitude," Lee said. "I'll do my best and see what happens."
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